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General Book Discussions & More => Gardening by the Book => Topic started by: BooksAdmin on March 15, 2021, 02:38:12 PM

Title: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BooksAdmin on March 15, 2021, 02:38:12 PM

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Spring is coming!

If you are thinking of trying some type of gardening this year, or are a new/ old Quarantine Gardener, whether it's on a window sill or 800 acres, come talk about your successes and failures with us. We'll share advice, good books on gardening, the best places to find help, and enthusiasm!

(https://seniorlearn.org/jane/flowerborder.jpg)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on March 15, 2021, 04:08:19 PM

Welcome!!

We thought this might be a good place to talk happily about our gardening efforts and to share enthusiasm and experiences and any resources as spring approaches.

Friday I went into Lowes Big Box Store here to get some Miracle Grow Moisture soil additive and the double LINES, the long long lines to just check out from the garden center were astounding. My own cart mysteriously filled up with a lot of plants!!!! I have dug enough holes this week so far to qualify for a subordinate acting part in The Dig! But will they live?

I've got some snapdragons seedlings in narrow pots on the windowsill, but perhaps I started THEM too early?

It was 80 degrees here Friday but it's getting colder again. Are you contemplating growing flowers or veggies or something new this year? If so, let's share tips, books, Youtube instructional films, enthusiasm and stories.

Welcome aboard!

I am trying to root some dahlias from last year. I've never had dahilas till last year and they were very pretty. But apparently you have to dig them up, but HERE you really don't have to. They make many small tubers like potatoes. which you then plant once you separate them.

I think I have made several mistakes. I have followed all the instructions on YouTube, but they differ!!! They are in a long planter here in the house where the frost can't hurt them, and there is some light, but I wish I had not cut them up now!! So I'm starting them early as our last frost is April 15. Fingers crossed.

What are you growing or planning to grow this year? Share your plans with us!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on March 17, 2021, 11:42:53 AM

Ah....how nice to dream of gardening. Here in the Upper Midwest, we're still dealing with cold and snow...got another 4" yesterday, after almost all of it had melted from earlier storms.

Keep posting, please, of what you're planting, so I have some ideas when that time finally comes here....middle of May for us.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: Siobhan on March 20, 2021, 10:14:24 AM

Hi Ginny and Jane!
I planted onions and garlic in the poly-tunnel last October, and they ought to be ready mid May. We also planted potatoes and courgettes last week. Today I am going to pot up some sweet-pea for our cottage garden. I also have to plant up 6 more box hedge plants to complete a square!! During the week we will also put down seeds for a meadow. We did this last year and it was beautiful!! Lots to be done in our garden here in Co Cork Ireland!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on March 20, 2021, 12:57:42 PM

Siobhan! From County Cork Ireland, no less! Welcome, welcome! And Jane with 4 feet of snow!!! Welcome!

We're from all over, this should be quite exciting!

Siobhan, it sounds like you do a lot more planting than I do, this is wonderful!

Tell us about your cottage garden? And your box hedge square? Is this in aid of a sort of formal garden?

One of my biggest problems is in not having an all over plan and organization. I see something, I want one and I plant it. I have visions of the overall plan but it never LOOKS like what I envisioned or see in the gardens of others. There IS no plan. This year I am determined to accomplish this at last.

I am really worried about my new dahlia undertakings, I have no experience with them and wish I had never dug them up!

Off to prune the roses, I have a great printout I found on the internet about pruning hydrangeas, and they are named by type and the new varieties, which ones to prune, and which not, so am finished with that and thrilled all my new ones are alive, so now I need to prune the roses and it's ALMOST too late. But we're to have temperatures in the 20's Fahrenheit here this week at night.

At the moment the Bradford Pears are blooming their hearts out, as are the forsythias. . I know people hate Bradford Pears, but you get a lot of bang in the spring for them and ours are quite old, what's left of them, they break off, and they are something to see. Also the quince is blooming. Here's a photo of my grandson with one of ours, a couple of years ago: (https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Johnspring.jpg)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on March 20, 2021, 01:58:25 PM

Siobhan...wow...you are indeed quite a gardener. It must be beautiful.

Ginny...Those pear trees are beautiful....and a handsome lad with them.

The snow is gone...and I've seen crocuses...croci?...on my walk this morning. Nothing else bloooming yet, those the daffodils are pushing through the ground.

First day of spring...so hoping for some warm weather soon.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: Siobhan on March 22, 2021, 03:49:17 PM

Thank you very much Ginny and Jane!! Your grandson is beautiful, Ginny, and so too are your amazing Bradford pear trees! I’ve never seen anything like them!! We live in a rural part of Cork but it’s lovely and quiet! And we appreciate it all the more now with the pandemic! We don’t have a formal garden, and the box hedges are only a minor addition. From time to time we have the company of cattle in the field beside us when the farmer lets them out to graze.
Best of luck with the new dahlias, Ginny, and I hope the temperature gets a bit warmer, Jane! All the best. Siobhan

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on March 26, 2021, 09:36:07 PM

Thak you both. :) We have a very fast Spring. It is beautiful but you have to move fast or it's so hot you can't breathe, plant, or move, unless it's a hot summer plant or seed.

Oh golly I went to the grocery store today (my one weekly exciting outing) and the flowering cherry trees just about ran me off the road. We have one giant one at the barn, but these were lining the street where the grocery was and I just pulled over and had a very happy lunch just looking at them. That is one beautiful tree. It was 81 degrees (27 celsius) here today but with torrential rains yesterday and tornado warnings. Thankfully all is well here but poor Alabama and Georgia!

Well Gardening Disaster #2, of what I am sure will be a series, as I am a ....."Quarantine Gardener, " taking it back up after several years of neglected efforts, in the Pandemic. I have two lemon trees in the house, one of which is about 6 feet tall. It had leafed out gloriously a couple of weeks or so ago, never saw it so robust, and then last week BLAM, it threw every single leaf it had on the floor! EVERY one! And the little Meyer Lemon tree about 3 feet tall did, too. There's nothing wrong with the leaves, no markings no bugs and the trunks are alive but out they go! YES! They will be happier under the dogwood tree where they can get real wind and filtered sun and rain. They were happy there last year and they are going to be happy now. hahaha And if a freeze comes in the middle of April I will cover them up.

The snapdragons with the shade cloth off are gorgeous.

Maybe the way my garden is going so far we should rename this Putterer's Corner. hahaha

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: Siobhan on March 28, 2021, 09:34:30 AM

Sorry to hear about your lemon trees, Ginny. I was in a garden centre yesterday (although not many are open owing to the pandemic) and I saw some lovely lemon and mandarin trees, with fruit on them! Pity I can't post substitutes over to you! In our wet and damp climate they would have to be kept inside, even during our summers! Ireland has a lovely green landscape due to all the rain!!! I tried to grow a lemon tree from a lemon seed, but without success. But I might give it another go!!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: Siobhan on March 29, 2021, 12:55:50 PM

Here's a flower posy with flowers from last year's meadow!!

(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Siobhanmeadow.jpg)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on March 29, 2021, 08:48:16 PM

Good heavens if that's not the most beautiful thing!!! What a sight that must be! I sometimes see these big packages of wildflowers, is that what you put in the meadow? Golly moses.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: Siobhan on March 30, 2021, 07:56:22 AM

Thank you, Ginny!

Yes, it came from a big package of wildflowers that I bought in a supermarket (grocery store). It wasn't at all expensive. This year, I sourced a meadow from Pictorial Meadows - a UK company. I'll let you know how I get on with this one!!!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on March 30, 2021, 10:44:48 AM

Siobhan...that meadow must be spectacular...as is your arrangement. I have seen those packets of wildflowers, too, but haven't had much luck. Maybe time to try again. Cost is minimal. I did have some luck planting milkweed to help with the repopulation of Monarch butterflies. I used to see them all the time, but the last few years have seen a decrease in quantity.

My neighbor has bee hives and he lost them all last year in our intense cold. The Veterinarian who actually owns the hives said he lost 23 of his 25 hives that are situated around the county. He likes the town environment for his hives...less change of pesticide hitting the bees.

Our temps have gone cold again, but there are buds on the lilacs waiting for another warm spell.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: Siobhan on March 31, 2021, 04:17:57 PM

Thank you so much, Jane. It would be great if you tried the wildflowers again. The ground needs a bit of prep for weeds, and although I didn't do it last time, it is suggested that the seed is mixed with sand for even distribution. We definitely had more bees and butterflies in the garden - more than the previous year. I am so sorry to hear about your neighbor's bee hives! What a pity!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on April 03, 2021, 02:40:49 PM

We used to have bee hives but the beekeeper died, what an intersting man he was. We had some kind of disease here that killed them.

Yesterday I went to Home Depot (Big Box Store) and there were some very beautiful Pennington wildflower packets but your thought on the weeds needing to be under control, Siobhan, stopped me. Are these annuals or perennials? I wonder if you could put them in an already established bed?

But of course they had these packets of oriental lilies and they were a little more than a dollar apiece (9 dollars for 8 bulbs) so I splurged. Have never had any before but that's how i got started with dahlias so I thought what the heck.

But I've pulled my gardening books out again as they show a finished perennial bed and I've just gotten another catalog in the mail so I thought I'd ADD perennials to this new bed I have for.....hopefully....something to look at every day in the summer.

Lupines. I like lupines. I think our problem here is we don't have the climate for certain plants. I've got a book which shows in full color and talks about each plant, 54 Landscape designs for the Southern garden and the 200 plants most suited. The color diagrams are wonderful but the photos are better because a lot of times the plants don't look like what you would expect. I figure I can put stuff in this new garden which is similar to or the same thing they advise and enjoy it. :)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: Siobhan on April 04, 2021, 02:58:14 PM

With regards to weeds and weeding, I hope I didn't put you off the wildflowers too much, Ginny! To be honest, I hardly did any weeding and they turned out OK. We put down annuals - but I know you can also get perennials, too. This year we put the wildflower seeds in various places in the garden for added colour, so yes, I'm sure they could be put them into an established bed. That would be a great idea! The oriental lilies sound lovely! You must take a picture of them when they are in bloom! I'm sure you must know all the Latin names of the plants, Ginny! My husband was saying that he would love to find out the Latin names for some of our trees. On the internet I looked up the Latin for Norway Spruce and it said - Picea abies - and Spanish Chestnut - Castanea sativa. I must find a book with the Latin names of plants - it would be very interesting!!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on April 12, 2021, 04:33:16 PM

Botanical Latin is fascinating, it really is, and it seems unending. I know some of them, but like you, I'd like to get a book on it because they are so much fun.

I saw those packets again and I am sorely temped, especially since you can get annuals and I'm talking about a pasture but I can't see any reason why not to try, you've had SUCH good luck! And in this long border I have, why couldn't it be there as well, a mixture?

I'm going back to get some hydrangeas when they have them and I'll get a packet then, they seem very popular, and they also seem to be giving out, selling well. I'm quite excited about this.

It's so hot outside today it's discouraging. I'm putting out houseplants as we speak. I had bought more snapdragons (people here usually plant seed in the fall, they are annuals here) but I am enjoying planting huge plants which have been cut and have branched like many bushes) and they are not happy as I planted them without a shade cloth so I fixed that this morning. They like cooler weather than the blast furnace out there now. That's what happens in our springs, one day cold and the next over 80 degrees. The dogwoods this year are breathtaking as you come up the drive, it's a very good year for flowering spring trees here.

I found a website that says that lemon trees can be grown in our USA zone with a great deal of trouble outside. That's all I need to hear, I'm going to try it. They are outside now.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 01, 2021, 02:19:58 PM

Our beautiful spring is suddenly over and it's 85 degrees and hot and dry. We need some rain. But the little flower garden is gorgeous and this weekend ought to be a sight to behold. The snapdragons look like Disney World's if you've ever seen them and all the roses are bursting into bloom. Unfortunately the porch is also full of things I intended to plant before it got hot and whammo it's HOT!

My pride and joy however is one tiny sprout in the kitchen under lights which is all that's left of the gigantic dahlias from last year. I can't believe how MANY people I have dragged over to see it and I bet they can't either. :) One green stalk about 4 inches high and 3 leaves, you'd have thought it was rare Polynesian breadfruit or something. hahaha

Oh and at the big box (Lowe's) garden center this year, guess what? Not the first of those red ball geraniums! Not the first. Every other kind, though. And every other shade of red. Happily mine spent the winter looking through the window longing to get outside and today out they go to be repotted on a shaded porch till they recover themselves.

I did take out the two lemon trees and it got down to 31 twice but the younger one is putting on leaves like mad. I don't understand the Lemon Tree!

What's happening in YOUR garden? Anything yet?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 01, 2021, 02:25:21 PM

I'm way north and west of you....but a "scorching weekend" here according to local weatherguessers. 90 here, too, and a 40 mph hot wind. It's still two weeks too early to put anything in the ground, and we desperately need rain. However, the hydrangeas (sp?) have buds and the hostas are popping up and spreading out.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 02, 2021, 06:28:10 AM

Oh hydrangeas! The only ones I have in bud are the two Wee White which made such a glorious picture last year. I had been thrilled to see how lovely a bush they had each made this year.

Yesterday as I walked past I could not help but notice that half of the one on the left was gone. GONE! It looked like some mad pruner had cut them off cleanly about 3-6 inches from the ground. GONE.

All foliage with them also gone! What on earth? I took a photo and sent it to the Extension office in Clemson asking for help. Then as it was Saturday I went online and read and read. DEER I read. Rabbits. I sprayed around the poor plants for that. Then CUTWORM I read. I sprayed organic bug spray for worms/ beetles/ caterpillars. Go out at night and SEE what it is, I read. I went out at twilight and spied a humongous beetle beetllng (sorry :) ) straight for it. It is beetling no more but no beetle could have eaten every scrap of the foliage! Could it?

What IS it it, does anybody know? Am I going to have to fence these bushes off in front of my front porch? That would be attractive. Not.

What to doooo? No other plant is thus affected?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 04, 2021, 08:31:25 AM

The Extension service responded they think it's deer and not rabbit, so I put one of those green plastic chicken wire fences around it, it's only 2 feet tall, you can't even see it till you're on it and so far so good (one night). We have armies of deer here but my husband says he does not think it's a deer. Whatever it was went somewhere else last night.

On another exciting gardening front, yesterday I took out my prize dahlia seedling to plant it in the rain over my lunch hour (it was actually a tornado watch but I did not know it till I came back inside,) and somehow along the way (they are quite delicate apparently) it became injured and its little stem which seemed to be scraped, would not hold it up. I put it in a pot and braced it against the wall of the pot and covered it with shade cloth and the roses arching down seemed to welcome it (I know, I'm gaga) and I was really disappointed and afraid to look this morning lo and behold it's leafing out with another leaf!

And the one I didn't manage to get out of the garden as advised is growing like a weed. I will NEVER follow the advice again of anybody on dahlias who does not live in this area. This is an enclosed elevated garden ringed by brick and a brick terrace which you can actually feel in the summer radiating heat. It simply did not get that cold. Had I left it in the ground it would have multiplied like a weed and we'd have had tons of gorgeous flowers.

I need to join the local society and listen to what THEY say. They have a sort of convention every year, I'll see what I can learn from that.

What's happening in your neck of the woods? One of our Latin students yesterday from Britain repeated an old saying, ""Ne'er cast a a clout till May is out." If we waited here to the end of May we'd broil to death trying to plant and water anything.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 07, 2021, 01:01:58 PM

It's May 7 here, fans of blowsy overgrown gardens, here is what my little terrace garden looks like this morning:
(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/gardemay5.jpg)

I am so glad I had not pruned the roses yet. It never looks in the photos like it does in person. Maybe because the camera can't really get it all in on either side. But it really is a bower, to me. For instance, there is a hollyhock out of sight on the left and the leaves are 14" across. It was the weak spindly one I put in the little garden because I had no place for it with the others and I thought it would not thrive anyway. It's the only one which seems to have survived. The Godzilla of Hollyhocks. :)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 07, 2021, 04:16:32 PM

WOW....beautiful! I love the fullness of everything.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 07, 2021, 05:53:30 PM

Thank you! It IS, it's just bursting, I wish I could get a decent photo of it.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 17, 2021, 01:02:26 PM

(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/roses%203%202021.jpg)

I'm really getting into this gardening thing. The roses this year are helping in that they've extended here way way to the left. I wanted to add another post extend it way across the porch like they do at
Queen Mary's Rose Garden on great thick ropes but I can't get ONE person here to want me to do that. Honestly. Everybody wants it cut back when it finishes blooming. They say if I continue it out the entire thing will come down due to the weight in a storm. We seem to worry an inordinate amount here about weight in storms, especially with the grape vines which I do admit come down in one.. And I do admit it's not me putting the posts and the vines and all that entails back up, either.

Very interesting program on youtube called The Impatient Gardener. The woman has a normal yard and it's full of flowers, and it's kind of a step by step along with her development of the gardens, some of which are spectacular.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 31, 2021, 10:35:00 AM

OH we're having a slight cold spell! Highs in the 70's! NO rain. Lots of watering, dragging those huge no kink (with lots of kinks) hoses. Does this count as going to the gym? hahaha

Am planting seeds in a 3' long unused planter on the porch, to transplant later on. Have put in Shasta daisies, and hollyhocks, since the ONE surviving puny hollyhock plant from last year which I moved to the garden above, which just gets prettier every day) is 6 feet tall and looks like two giant towers, so I'll try some more for next year. It also has a couple of rust spots.

Just found a packet on the remainder shelf (no telling how old it is) of Canterbury Bells, so will plant them next. It SAYS container variety but will transplant them when they (if they) come up.

How is YOUR garden growing?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 31, 2021, 12:35:50 PM

I put two varieties of Coral Bells...a reddish one and a dark, dark one in the front. I'd had them a couple years ago, but they hadn't survived the winter, so I'm trying again.

Mostly what's growing is out of control Chinese lanterns and spearmint. I pull up more of them as I walk by.

https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-control-chinese-lanterns-4125583

On a positive note, the balloon flowers are coming up nicely. They self seed, so I don't know if they'll be the purple ones or the cream ones.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=balloon+flowers+perennials+images&atb=v186-1&ia=web

We had a little rain last week and temps in the 30s and 40s, but now to get back up into 70s and into the 80s by next week. What a rollercoaster!

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 01, 2021, 10:35:35 AM

Wow, those are exotic looking weeds, the Chinese lanterns, I've never seen one! And they grow wild!!

Oh I AM glad to know somebody who grows coral bells, I've been seeing them at Lowe's and they are gorgeous!! I love red colored plants, period, had just planted Loropetalum here along the foundations where I had a gap. I think here it's also known as Chinese fringe flower but I could be wrong. Love anything red.

Something ate the leaves off the new cherry tree yesterday and I sprayed the deer repellent everywhere, including on self, by mistake so I am pretty sure no deer will bother me. :)

It's returning to heat today, the weather sure is strange. I have the irrigation now complete in the long bed, and today's the day to put the pipes in the garden above, which is a bit daunting. I'm using the pipe system we have in the vineyard, because I'm used to it. I hope it works. With such heat you really do need water.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 25, 2021, 09:38:08 AM

Just a quick update, am off to Lowe's (big box store for home projects, etc., ) as yesterday I saw they had a daylily called Chicago Apache for 6.99 instead of the 14.99 plus shipping the growers want and it has several scapes so am going to get more.

The hollyhocks I planted resulted in ONE blooming plant this year which unfortunately, despite being 10 feet tall has rust. I did not know what rust was but I can see how disappointing it IS, as this plant has several stately spikes of pink which unfortunately do not open their flowers so you can see them folded and know what it might have been. Such a shame. I've got some coming on in seed and they will have to have their own pot away from the main garden. I suppose there is something to spray for rust, never heard of it.

New cherry tree eaten totally by deer making a great comeback.

Anybody know what to do with chipmunks? Digging up the pots and flowers on the porch for something they apparently had put in the pot.

The little ONE dahlia which I had managed to grow by cutting it into a million pieces, according to the dahlia society info and videos, one managed to live, thank goodness, and is now eye height, the new ones are all in bud and the ONE I inadvertently left IN the ground here is over 6 feet tall and covered with buds.

I think the main lesson I have learned this year is grow plants in accordance with your own zone because if you don't you'll be quite disappointed. All that time and trouble wasted on "saving" the dahlia from the weather, not necessary here.

Lemon trees: one dead (the one which threw all its leaves on the ground, one looking pretty good (the small one). Have moved it into the sun.

Snapdragons which supposedly it's too hot for here, doing splendidly. Hydrangeas doing splendidly.

We're now in the Japanese beetle plague stage which may go through July. Nasty little beasts. Eat rose blossoms in a day.

Need to attach the DYI irrigation pipes now in position. Rainbird online is very helpful for the pieces needed.

That's about it from me, what's growing in YOUR neck of the woods?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 06, 2021, 01:55:25 PM

My projects are coming along pretty well but once again I am victim to no PLAN, and thus the overall effect is not quite what I wanted. I should have done more "by the book." However now I have three flower beds well under rehab: I've got one completely planted and about 75 feet of the longest one (100') full. The third one is still in need of triage but it's better than it was. However I fear the all over effect of that long one may not be what I had envisioned, but the good news is it's plants, and they can be moved (seriously thinking about some yard help when that occurs) when (and if) it's ever cooler.

If you don't move fast here you plant in 90+ degree weather and there are not many plants other than daylilies I know of you can do that to and expect them to live. I'm pretty well confined to planting now along the soaker hoses if anything is to survive but they are in partial shade during the day which helps as well.

You really cannot kill a daylily (hemerocallis) unless you try hard. I have seen them in commercial operations stacked against a barn with no dirt whatsoever on them (bare root) in the hot sun with nobody but me concerned.

Oh and my big ball red geraniums are back with a vengeance, including the ones which have been houseplants for years. Much happier outdoors.

I'm really enjoying planting seeds, too.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on July 06, 2021, 02:06:45 PM

Here in Iowa we're also sweltering in 93+ degrees and no rain. The most I can manage outdoors is getting the sprinklers set up and running.

We're to get a cold front tonight and maybe 20 degrees cooler tomorrow. What a blessing that will be.

Stay safe in the heat and humidity!

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 07, 2021, 09:55:09 AM

What heat the entire country is having! It's unreal. I hate to see the water bill. My walking has dwindled to almost nothing. I know you will enjoy that cool!

I STILL don't have the pipes connected which I laid so carefully in the small garden off the terrace so am still watering by hand. My excuse is it's too hot to sit there and struggle with them and the mosquitoes, but I think that's a cop out. Still I don't think there is anything I dislike more than dragging hoses. Imagine the luxury of automatic irrigation!! We're also in a drought as well.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on July 07, 2021, 08:40:53 PM

My sister has inground irrigation or whatever it's called where they can program the sprinkler heads to pop up and spray for a designated time. My BIL, however, had to dig up at least half of it and clean out the roots that had compressed the water lines and even invaded the pipe that one of those water lines was in. He'd pulled up the triangle concrete blocks that make the walkway to their front door from the driveway. More roots to dig out. He was fortunate to have a neighbor he'd never met...lives at the other end of their dual cul-de-sacs...stop and offer to help him. The guy helped him for 2 hours, went home for a rest and returned to help for a couple more! My sister said it works better now than it ever did.

I drag hoses, too. We had a brief shower this afternoon, but maybe more tomorrow, the "weatherguessers" say.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 08, 2021, 07:49:03 AM

I'm actually glad to hear that. The ultimate might not be ultimate, then. I don't know why I did NOT realize that after all the issues we had with the vineyard irrigation. Of course if somebody runs a plow through one of the main conduits, it's hard for water to continue on. hahaha But we had issues before that, mainly with clogging. And the majority of it is above ground.

I need a neighbor like that, what a great guy!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 02, 2021, 01:36:12 PM

Now that it's August and as hot as hades and totally dry, the hydrangeas planted last year are really show stoppers. Just beautiful. Not much else blooming except the dahilas, the biggest of same the one I forgot in the garden, it's incredible Super Dahlia! It must have 10 six foot tall stalks, all covered with buds. I've got rudbeckia, the Goldstrum yellow, amd I need more of them and more red ones. Roses are coming back after the assault of the Japanese beetles and the voles have tunneled from below and completely destroyed all Oriental and Asiatic lilies. I hear they will do the same to my hostas so am glad they are still in pots. People here actually plant them in pots to avoid the Horrid Vole. Strangely enough the snapdragons are holding their own. I'm used to them petering out in the heat, not so if you prune them and water them enough. Will it ever rain?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on December 12, 2021, 12:03:15 PM

Well, it's officially? Winter, how is anybody's garden doing? I am astonished to see a flower called Painted Blanket blooming its heart out, out there in the garden!!! I counted 12 blooms on 2 plants yesterday. We've been pretty warm here but we have had temps of 27 at night.

THAT one is a keeper. I need about 6 more for that bed. Very pleased so far with how it has come out.

Of course we now not only have a giant rabbit, we also have TWO gigantic groundhogs which are NOT hibernating, absolutely huge.

You could hitch them to a wagon. My husband says if technology could capture their hearing for people it would revolutionize the hearing aid field because they have ultrasonic hearing. You can't open a door, they are gone.

And BOY are they destructive.

Am now seriously into bird feeders and enjoying it a lot. Just put a new one up this morning and it's a beauty, and very attractive to birds, I thought one was going to swoop down on me before I ever got it assembled.

What's happening in your garden? If anything?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on December 13, 2021, 10:40:16 AM

My garden is dead, dead, dead...all brown and ugly. I guess the landscapers aren't going to get to me this year to trim it all down and haul it away.

The birds are feasting heavily, esp. before a change in the weather. They're also devouring the suet cakes. And the squirrels get fatter and fatter eating the seed the birds toss to the ground. Simple pleasures for me these days. :)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on February 13, 2022, 07:24:16 AM

Yes I am also really into birds now, and bird feeders, and the antics are so fun to watch. I'm going to have to do something about the bluebirds, we do have them even over the winter, they were once endangered here, and I need to do something because the more aggressive birds are hogging the feeder and we don't have the Blue Jays back or the Mockingbirds back yet and THEY are very aggressive, and I can envision an entire yard full of bird feeders to allow some of the more timid to be able to get anything at all.

The cardinals are just spectacular in their red. We have 12 males in red out there, a sight in the snow, but in the group one of them has appointed himself Master of the Feeder, and it's such a hoot watching him trying to get the other birds to leave. The little ones, the sparrows? Run him a merry pace, I think they deliberately taunt him, I had switched to a bottom ring type feeder, and they go around and around it. It's a wonder he weighs anything from chasing them all the time. But I have to say he 's one of the biggest cardinals I ever saw.

Plant wise of course there's nothing. But yesterday it was 70 degrees and some of the daylilies are greening up. The strangest thing is the snapdragons, they are still green. It's been quite cold here for us, it got down to 10 one night and they are STILL green? In the raised bed.

I don't know what to do with them? This is about the time in this area you plant them. Does anybody know what to do with some which bloomed all year last year and are still big, bushy and green? Will they bloom again? Should I cut them back down and wait for more blooms? Aren't they biennial so if they have bloomed once they won't again?

Despite half the world telling me they would not do well here in the heat they bloomed all summer and it looks as if they are ready again.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on February 13, 2022, 04:44:30 PM

Stay with whatever works for you in your garden.

Fresh dusting of snow last night and 10 degrees now at 3:30 pm. The birds seem to come to feed about 4:00 every day...and even the woodpeckers like the peanut flavored suet cakes. I'll have to make a trip back to FarmFleet for more seed. I can only buy it by the plastic bag I fill as the 20# or 50# bags are simply way beyond what I can carry from my car to the shop. Getting old is so much fun....NOT.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on February 14, 2022, 12:22:40 PM

Oh I know what you mean by those heavy bags of chicken feed or bird seed. A lot of times those large bags spoil (especially with chicken feed) before a small flock can eat them in the first place.

I wrote the Clemson Extension service this morning early (I like asking the Extension Service and apparently we now have a person back in office), and got back a reply already. They said that "snapdragon' means different things to different people, did I happen to have a photo handy of them in bloom? (They always want a close up photo).....I found one and it IS Antirrhinum which most of us think of as those large gorgeous snapdragons, and she said that in this area (get this!) they are regarded as a tender perennial and due to soil conditions and water and the heat from that brick bed and porch they may in fact continue. I can find out by cutting them down to 5 or 6 buds and see. All this time I could have covered that bed with something warm, too. They gave me so much pleasure last year.

She said some people in this area treat them like annuals so that they don't have such tall stalks. I have never lived where they were any kind of perennial, I am quite excited to try. What have I got to lose? Just as you say, do what works. We've just become zone 8 anyway, which is new, too.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on February 15, 2022, 02:55:36 PM

While at Farm Fleet for my bulk bird seed, I bought another feeder...yes, like I need another one...but...why not? This one is for the cardinals and whoever else likes safflower seeds and hearts of sunflower seeds. I also saw 2 young deer coming up toward my back yard from the backwater of the river this morning. They stopped short of my yard, and went through the bushes to the north. They may have been heading to a guy who feeds the deer on the other side of the state highway in front of my house. That's a good way for the deer to get killed by the car and large livestock trucks that use that highway. Then I saw two bald eagles soaring on the wind currents over the river as I headed out to Farm Fleet. Nice nature morning here.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on February 17, 2022, 07:11:08 PM

Bald eagles! Wow. Like a nature show!!

Bird feeders! I wish I could fill one of them without dumping it all over myself. I just did mine tonight, got it all over EVERYTHING . They are so high up. I need to look into a pole which telescopes. If there is a wild bird flu I ought to be dead of it. It's amazing how it gets all over everything.

It's like spring today, beautiful outside. Daffodils are blooming. Spring!! In this area when you get such a day you move fast because in a short time it's like 90 degrees. Conversely we've had some mammoth ice storms in March.

We don't have Farm Fleet but we've got several feed and seeds, and we have Tractor Supply.

I also want another bird feeder, for bluebirds, we have them all year long. I just can't find the right one, all the ones recommended have people who say they don't work, and the big birds drive them off.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on February 19, 2022, 09:43:42 AM

We’re in whiplash territory..5 degrees this morning, then 50s tomorrow, then down again. Most snow is gone, except for big piles from clearing lots, etc.

Spring a long way off. March is our snowiest month.

Jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: PatH on February 19, 2022, 01:58:52 PM

Brrr.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on March 05, 2022, 11:28:40 AM

Yes and it's so strange here as well. It's been in the 70's, it's to be 80 next week and yet...and yet... our worst ice storms normally occur about the Ides of March here. I am not doing anything, and there's nothing to plant available yet. Of course you then have almost no time to get the poor plants in the ground before the searing heat when they have little to no chance.

I'm also going to have to make a habit of a weekly trip to Lowes here. Apparently according to the help there, they bring in plants "which are blooming," and take them out just as quickly, so one HERE does not want to be looking on Saturdays, and I want some more of their Chicago Apache Daylilies because last year the two pitiful struggling ones I got on sale as they were removing them (no bloom) continued to bloom the most gorgeous colors, you can't capture them in a photo, they are beacons from a great distance, way way into the fall. And the price is 4 times higher among the daylily companies, but you have to know when to strike Lowes while the iron is hot. :)

In other areas, my youngest son is putting up the 2nd bird feeder, this one for bluebirds, and he got the pole from Amazon.com and I think you could hang ME on it, it's tremendously strong (shepherd's crook type) and much nicer than the one I now have from Lowes.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on March 06, 2022, 06:25:16 PM

Congratulations on having a handy son who can get those suckers solidly into the ground.

Not close to planting anything, though WalMart has bulbs in the store. Snow expected tonight and tomorrow.

Weather always turns ugly at this time...state girls' and boys' basketball tournaments.

80s??? Incredible.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 01, 2022, 06:54:11 PM

Yes but it's already almost too late to do anything, without planting in severe heat and having to water continually, it's alternated so between cold and frost but I can't complain, because just look at what met me Friday when I came home, it's just burst into bloom, my little Covid Garden.

It won't come as a surprise to anybody that I have not TOUCHED this garden since the first frost of fall, because of the way it looks, and thus am way way behind. When you haven't even lifted one finger and get to see THIS, it's was such a day brightener.

(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/flowerslong.jpg)

(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/snaps_small.jpg)

Apparently our zone for gardening has been changed to 8a. I did not know what this meant, particularly, but one thing it seems to mean is that snapdragons, and this is the antirrhinum, a true annual, can be perennial under certain conditions and they are absolutely a dream. Up close some of them are bicolor, just gorgeous.

AND for the very first time, and you can't see it here, but way at the back there's a large yellow (2 today) bloom of a peony called Bartzilla. One one of our family trips to Biltmore we spotted a magnificent specimen of it, incredible plant, an Itoh peony, which the directions said could be grown in a pot for a while. It's been several years but I found a seller and bought one and this is the first year it's bloomed and that also Friday! Two blooms today. Friday was a good day!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 01, 2022, 07:33:42 PM

WOW....Nothing planted here...still too cold and freeze at night. Can't plant anything until May 12 and only a few things are popping through the ground...hostas and daffs.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 14, 2022, 10:34:56 AM

(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/gardenmay2022.jpg) And it just keeps going, it's kind of like the Energizer Bunny, the poor thing has had nothing whatsoever done to it, watering, pruning, fertilizing, anything else and we're in something of a drought. . I strained my knee and have done nothing. The other side, the porch side that is not visible, is likewise all in bloom, in pots, it's amazing. All the dahlias have come back up. It's just taken over on its own, even the lawnmower is in the shop, so gardening wise I get an F, but it keeps on. And this is exactly the clutterscape type of garden I love. Never saw anything like it here.

(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/roses2022.jpg)These were a gift from my DIL and son one year for my birthday, I think, and they planted it some years ago but it got out of hand so they pruned it last year. I had favored one of those garlands on heavy rope like at Queen Mary's Rose Garden in Regent's Park, and I thought no bloom would be left. Shows you what I know. hahahaa

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 14, 2022, 12:31:56 PM

WOW....looks like a gardening magazine's cover shot.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 15, 2022, 09:45:13 AM

HO!! Thank you, that's a first in my gardening life. hahaha

How is yours coming along? I didn't get my strawberry and vanilla (can't ever remember the name) hydrangeas pruned, in fact NO hydrangea has been pruned and I am half afraid to see what happens to them.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 15, 2022, 05:45:05 PM

My back garden looks awful. The landscapers who usually come and clean up have been injured...rotator cuff for the mother, back for the son who fell somehow. So many plants never made it because of the 3 walnut trees that were along the edge, but I couldn't convince Ray of that. Those trees are now gone, but I'm not sure the roots still don't poison the plants. I pruned/cut my hydrangeas myself. Lots of hostas doing well...that seems to be the only thing that does well in the back area....so be it. I hope for a lot of balloon flowers come July.

The front and side are all perennials and so they'll do what they do. I just can't get down and plant flats of flowers like we used to.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 15, 2022, 06:56:09 PM

That sounds bad!! Rotator cuff, and back, two things that don't exactly inspire confidence for the future. So sorry!

Hostas are gorgeous, however.

Hopefully somebody else will come in and fill in the gaps?

Is that black walnut trees? We have some in the woods, not near any flowers, though, thank goodness. We have noticed that nothing much in the way of seedlings grows under them.

I feel realy remiss that all those hydrangeas of mine are not pruned, and the irrigation hose was never put in the garden above, and set up, I absolutely HATE "dragging hoses," hate it!

I kept waiting for the "right time," but the weather changed so drastically this spring, and the couple of days available I had something else that needed to take priority, it's too late now.

I think perennials are definitely the way to go! They are SO pretty. I planted a lot of them last year in the new long bed, and am looking forward to them coming up. IF the groundhogs will let me have any, that is.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 16, 2022, 01:33:24 PM

My landscaper guy came this morning and has been hard at work. He's getting the weeds out, leaving the balloon flowers I like, and getting mulch down.

He said what I'd done with the hydrageas was fine, as long as I wanted them to be bushier. I'd just cut the old blossoms off. Otherwise he'd trim that a bit further down. I like them bushier, so they're good.

The Chinese lanterns are so invasive, they've taken over the side bed. He's going to spray those to get rid of them. They're just too much.

https://www.thespruce.com/chinese-lantern-plants-2132369

Then, next year, we'll look at other perennials we can plant in there.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 16, 2022, 04:38:08 PM

ANOTHER landscaper? Where do you find all of them??!!?? I'd be happy with ONE! hahhaa

Those rhizome plants are really something. I have an acanthus I'd have loved to have moved and they run by rhizomes, I'd love to have a huge spread of them, they are so pretty when controlled, but apparently it's hard to do.

(https://seniorlearn.org/latin/fishbourne/fishbourneacanthus.jpg) And I have the spinosa variety which is what it sounds like so the deer etc., tend to leave it alone.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on May 17, 2022, 12:53:47 PM

The landscape guy appeared yesterday and worked all day, helped by his mother who came about noon, after being in CR for pain shots in her shoulder and knee.

They performed miracles and things look so much better. Nothing blooming yet...the balloon flowers won't bloom until July. The mulch is down and everything looks so clean and nice. Now I hope for some rain today. Mom (Ingrid) said she's 65 now and is tired of doing patios and water features. She said she's ready for having maybe 10 customers and just doing 6 week maintenance for them. I told her to sign me up.

It's almost impossible to find these people. We are longtime customers, so they just come automatically every spring and fall....but they didn't make it last year.

I'm so glad to have them.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 17, 2022, 06:23:35 PM

Sign me up, too! Is it too far to commute? hahahaha

I keep reading British mysteries where the local yard man comes in and does his thing and nobody thinks anything of it. Apparently the neighborhoods are full of these people, Monday is XX's day and Tuesday is Y's....and so on.

I know it looks beautiful and is a joy to see!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 24, 2022, 09:47:31 AM

There's a new gardening show called Garden Rescue on a channel called DIGI free to view on computer, have reported on the first episode I saw here in the Library: https://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=881.msg429281#msg429281

I'd like to know what you all think about the design.

:)

https://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=881.msg429281#msg429281

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 28, 2022, 08:28:30 AM

To continue the discussion on sumac, in the Library, there appear to be two kinds:

Not Poisonous

Unlike its close relatives, poison ivy, oak and sumac, the landscape sumacs do not cause itchy rashes. Vine- and shrub-like poison ivy and oak have three distinct leaflets per leaf, so there is no confusing those. But poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is also a small tree with leaves like regular sumac. Difference is, poison sumac has clusters of grayish white berries that hang down, and the plants grow exclusively in low, wet, or flooded areas such as swamps and peat bogs. You will not find poison sumac growing up on high, dry hillsides where non-poisonous ornamental kinds typically grow.

It was an African garden which I thought turned out to be very colorful....I still would like to see a Return to...program so we can see what it actually looks like a few years on....

In this area we have a couple of famous landscape designers who have put in gardens that have not worked, big time....plants not comfortable in this area or the settings they were put in, which have caused a lot of frustration and work for the owners. I know of two personally who were very disappointed in the long run...so with gardening it might be good to see the long run if the staff of full time gardeners is absent.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on May 28, 2022, 01:31:56 PM

Did not know there were two kinds of Sumac - that makes sense then because they do have wonderful coloring in the fall of the year.

And yes, it would be great to see a visit a few years later - but then something tells me many of the participants end up adding things or changing things and so it could be these gardens have a different look and then the whole explanation for the changes - my wish is they had a book or web site with photos of all the finished gardens they've done

I'm glued to the program when the design includes raised gardens - most so far seem to use either wood or the willow woven fences that neither fits for me and I am tired of seeing the cattle tanks used for raised gardens but just as all the ads and photos of walk in showers are now popular for I bet the influx of Boomers who are aging now when getting in and out of a tub is almost impossible so too raised gardens are about what most can handle after age 75.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: PatH on May 28, 2022, 02:05:08 PM

Some sumac isn't just not poisonous, it's eaten. In a Lebanese or other middle eastern restaurant, if you see a shaker of dark red powder on the table, that's sumac. It has a pleasant tart taste, and is good on hard boiled eggs instead of paprika.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on May 28, 2022, 02:41:07 PM

huah - learn something everyday - how easy it is to assume when you have only your surroundings to dope out what is the story - now I am curious if we even have non poisonous sumac in a garden center much finding sumac to use on food - would love to try it... thanks Pat

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 01, 2022, 01:58:27 PM

Looking at the past posts and Ginny I love the curved brick low wall surrounding your garden and the roses - what is the name of the rose that I assume is a climber? - Do you know if a sort of hedge of rose bushes use climbers - I doubt hybrids.

The Garden they did yesterday was a winner in my mind - and actually the big price tag afforded not only 1000 pound towards furniture but they had another 1000 returned and so their garden with the - oh now I forgot what they called it - but the narrow reflecting pond and two dry stack walls and keeping the really nice garden shed/room in a rather narrow space was a nice bit of inspiration - we here could never have a pond - it would be a breeding ground for mosquitoes that here do bring things like malaria - much less in the area near Houston - We can't have any standing water - maybe if it had a pump to constantly agitate the water it might work.

Where here on the west side of the Balcones fault there would be plenty of rock for walls I'm going east and the soil is sort of mucky - even on the east side of the fault in Austin that runs up just west of the middle of town - good for growing things however the further east towards Houston the more coastal damp muck it gets and so different plants that I will have to get to know...

I understand Maples grow in that area north of Houston - However, I'm looking at fast growing anything - at my age can't wait 10 and 15 years for a matured garden. I'm thinking miniature fruit trees doting the the flowers, veggies, shrubs and vines.

The Garden with the incredible view I thought was a miss match - Charlie with her curved country look using the willow fencing and creating the sitting area was lovely but I did not see how it enhanced the lower patio area with the table and chairs with the dry wall and everything angular and straight lines - I doubt Charlie come up with getting the boys to agree - I'm thinking it was a production decision that I thought split the look of the final garden.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 02, 2022, 01:08:09 PM

Yes, I agree, I thought they did a good job with that one. And money left over, too. I did think the couches were perhaps not the best choice the homeowners made for furniture, but they may know something I don't about that fabric.

That was a really good one, in contrast to the one this morning about the mother daughter and two children who liked the beach one that Charlie won...did not care for that at all. I know she means well, and it was lovely to see the children's beach project included in the garden, I just hope the little stones the children had brought back from the beach were still there, it kind of looked all new. I'm sure they were preserved.

Also this morning the Houses one with the Vicount and Colebrooke Park.... didn't much care for the new man instead of Ruth, Simon something, and I hope that works out for the couple., I thought it was odd... Since these are old programs I looked up the site to see how it is now running, It seems they ARE now taking in guests, in "cottages," and...well here is an advert for one of their accommodations:

Whitehill Cottage

Whitehill Cottage, Fermanagh, has been beautifully and sympathetically restored to offer luxurious modern facilities without compromising the period features and ambiance of what is a stunning example of an original Irish cottage. We believe there is nothing as unique as this in Northern Ireland. Could this be the most idyllic get away destination in the province?

Come and experience the charm of this beautiful self-catering cottage for a romantic getaway, family break or whatever your heart desires as we are sure it will be a memorable experience.

Nestled on the Colebrooke Estate which comprises 1000 acres of stunning Fermanagh countryside, this holiday cottage offers peace from the outside world. The weary can rest and recuperate or visit the luxurious Colebrooke Spa, whilst the over active can fish, shoot, ride, cycle and play tennis to name but a few of the many activities on offer.

The cottage is 90 minutes from Belfast and 40 minutes from the glorious Donegal coast. Fermanagh is renowned for its Loughs and Islands (one for each day of the year), its history and unspoilt character that offer a truly memorable holiday experience in Ireland.

And it's also for those group Corporate Breaks and is a Hunting Estate as well. So it does seem some changes have been made that were not anticipated in the final film this morning, i.e, the ability to stay on the grounds when not in a hunting party, which was a major bone of contention this morning.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 02, 2022, 01:22:10 PM

Haven't seen yet the beach garden - I see them at 7:00 and the other Houses sounded familiar till I realized we see that show on another channel called DABL and I just happened to see that one on Tuesday night - I don't often see that show since it is on so late - around midnight or maybe it is 1:

On DABL is a show I do enjoy that is on late on the weekends 10: or maybe it is 11: - two construction remodelers from Boston, they've been alternating it recently with a remodeler from San Antonio - trying to make a profit and still abide with all the regulations is far more than I ever imagined. But learning about so many new products available and the benefits is better than years ago I used to watch something Yankee handyman or maybe it was Yankee garden but they did more woodwork construction than gardening.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 03, 2022, 08:12:15 PM

Saw the beach look last evening - when I saw the age of the 'children' I thought to use her last savings to hopefully please them and they will be gone in 5 to 8 years - not only did I not like the beach look - those shark mouth things with candles sheesh - I did not like the beach look at the visiting garden either - long term I think the garden design by the boys was much better - and this evening it is the Indian couple with the tile work - I'm almost sure I saw this last winter and so they may be doing repeats.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 06, 2022, 11:21:59 AM

I agree, I didn't care for it at all, and that one was Charlie, wasn't it? The one this morning was a long one that apparently the "Boys" did, I came to it late but it was those rooms again and quite nice for a long thin garden. Did not care for the rabbit hole, the Alice in Wonderland thingie, because holes like that here tend to contain things that you don't want, but they would not have such in a city dwelling.

I'm getting to where I can recognize their style.

It was nicely done.

My poor carefully laid Covid Garden beds have been at the mercy of what appears to be a HERD of rabbits not to mention the ground hogs but a cat has appeared and seems to enjoy patrolling the grounds, each morning. I hope that helps. It's like zoo parade here every day. When you don't have a dog to run them off, the deer ate the hostas to the ground, and they were so pretty.

Discouraging, but I see some other plants coming on. One does what one can at the moment.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 06, 2022, 02:18:24 PM

Looking forward to the show this evening - as to Deer - yes, they like hosta - I did learn each herd develops different likes and dislikes but on the whole I found safe are most herbs and our Texas Sage which I am not sure what would work in place of Texas Sage that has wonderful magenta flower along the stems - they don't eat Canna Lilies, salva, marigolds, snapdragons and the biggie that comes now in all colors the Lantana. I found they do not eat the Vinca that is a ground cover and where they will eat the Nandina leaves not so much to ruin the shrub.

I found most sprays to chase them away do not work nor does coyote urine however there is a hose contraption that has some sort of eye for movement if anything crosses the path of the area and squirts out a good spray which can be adjusted as much as 70 feet out. The spray swings in a 180 degree arch. I use it anytime I've planted something new because regardless if they like the mature plant or not anything newly planted is gobbled up.

I do like watching them and so I've not fenced them out as others have. You can always tell a neighborhood that has deer by what is planted in the front yard.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 06, 2022, 10:00:47 PM

Loved what the boys did for that long thin shaped garden - I do think Charlie's idea for a stage area that could be used as a deck for any activity and then the high platform connected up in the trees was probably better after seeing the age of the child - the boys Alice in Wonderland I think went over her head although it gave me ideas - not the rabbit hole but the checkerboard pattern of slabs -

Then the children's garden in, I think it was Stratford upon Avon - something Avon - it was wonderful - love the huge spiderweb fencing that appears to be bent wire fencing and the small houses - I could see the boys wonderful light fixtures with the solar lights be shaped like houses rather than boxes -

Where Charlie includes a water feature, fountains, waterfalls, natural looking ponds and a pergola even if only as archways into another section of the garden - the boys seem to use stone or rock walls in their designs and sometimes a reflective pond that is more structured - for us the stacked rock wall and water features, ponds or otherwise would be home to snakes, mosquitoes and insects we do not want.

One of my first sightseeing forays once I'm settled in a bit will be to see the gardens at Ima Hogg's Bayue Bend - granted more formal and extensive however, at least I will get ideas on the better plants to use. Back to the show agree, today was a winner.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 08, 2022, 09:26:57 AM

I haven't seen the Avon one but I agree with your thoughts on the holes and rocks. hahaha

I also did not like the one, and I am not sure whose idea it was, but it was round rocks in wire cages? I guess that could be fun for a creative project? Or was it intended for a wall? Wire crates of round rocks stacked? It's creative... It would bother me in a garden, as if it had been delivered and not done something with, but that's just me.

I missed the one yesterday, something about a large garden, the one with the curving path (and of course since it was Charlie, a "pergola" consisting of three beams), and the child's swing in another area. I was at the dentist and caught the last bit of it last night (again if I could tape it, I could have seen it all). Apparently Charlie won this one and was spouting all sorts of orders...not sure she's as much help when the other team wins. haahaha Anyway, it WAS pretty.

Apparently the Red Bud is a big tree innovation in Britain but HERE the birds carry it everywhere until ours died (they don't live that long) literally had hundreds of them springing up everywhere. In fact, even though it's gone, they still are springing up with their heart shaped leaves. Very hard to kill. But not listed as "invasive" for some reason.

I like your idea of going to look at gardens for inspiration.

Today at 10 it's to be Wellingborough: Charlie and the Rich brothers tackle a bland garden in Northamptonshire that needs to work much harder to serve all the family. With four generations sharing the space, the designers have their work cut out to create a design that will suit everyone.

And at 11 it's Simon instead of Ruth going to help the Meldon Park owners. Near Morpeth in Northumberland, Meldon Park has been a home to the Cooksons since 1832. Successive generations have seen the family's fortunes wax and wane. Simon Davis finds the walled kitchen garden, that has recently received great investment, is sitting empty after two failed attempts to run a café there. With his background in restaurant consultancy, Simon can see the obvious potential

For some reason I am beginning to feel sorry (and I know that sounds crazy) for these people who inherit these incredible piles of houses and land who then go broke or have to be the maid, cook, and bottle washer to the public in an effort not to lose their inheritance. I have more sympathy now for those huge things I have wanted to see myself which are closed most of the time. I'm pretty sure if I had one I would not want to be the chamber maid to visitors to keep it going, but then again, I am not in that position.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 08, 2022, 04:12:59 PM

Seems to me I saw the one with the four generations and the walled garden last winter - yes, they all have to become entrepreneurs and think of their house and land not as a home but as an investment opportunity with they becoming the sweat equity. Now if you happen to love showing off your inherited treasures to strangers that in one thing but if you are into other aspects of living, you cannot afford to be and if you have no treasures worth the public looking at then you have to put on your Wellies or wrap yourself in an apron and arm yourself with shovel, spatula or cleaning brush and get to work.

It would be easier to sell it all and use the cash to invest so you could live off your investment but it would be such a shame to see all those estates gone - bad enough so many went after they had to pay property tax and could not afford it - looks like those who inherit or know they will inherit need a business degree coupled with a minor in farm/land management

Did you see the one yet where the single older women owner had an extensive collection of period dresses? Fabulous - she sold some but then was photographed in some that the photos were sold to magazines - redid the house displaying dresses all over and she had fashion shows in her house. On and on all about her interest and wonderful collection of clothes from all the past owners of the house going back several hundred years. Once on her way she was a delight - before, she was a complete scatterbrain recluse that lived in a fantasy not seeing the required repairs. She was receiving a good size monthly stipend from some guy she knew in the past and I think if I remember he died and so she was going to have to face paying her own bills.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 09, 2022, 11:43:26 AM

I did see the one with the clothes, but was it a full episode? It seems that the one I saw was just part of a promo thing so maybe that's to come.

Yesterday they put on the Mud Racers.... I really feel sorry for these folks.... I don't know, they don't want to be the generation that lets the family down but they are more or less enslaved by the entire thing. They seem to think it's worth it.

It's beginning to be kind of depressing. I recall when we first bought this farm and had the working vineyard (still have it but much reduced and the deer eat everything now before it can be sold), but I recall the BIG thing agriculturally was diversity, you were to not focus on the main crop but to create mini Disney Worlds, corn mazes, other fruits and veg for your Stand, your little country store type thing, tours drawn by tractor, pumpkin patches, DIVERSIFY. School trips. Extend the year.

Sounded like a nightmare to me, very invasive. 90 percent of your customers were wonderful people, the other 10 percent you did not want to meet on the street day or night. I miss some of our customers, got to know them over the years, but I have enough horror stories of some of the others to write a book. Unbelievable stories. Too old now to deal with that, I think.

So those who don't want to turn their estates into 24/7 Disney Worlds have my sympathy.

Today on the Gardening one, were the two men whose long thin garden was changed.... They loved the final result, it looked kind of unsettled and overgrown to me, but I think perhaps it was the newness of the plantings. That's one I'd like to see revisited, as one of the men was a keen gardener. I hope perhaps they will go back and revisit some of them, as these programs are not new, and it would be interesting to see what they look like now.

Apparently there are going to be some new shows aired and more to come as filming was interrupted by the Covid thing, but it's unclear if the Rich brothers will return. One article says they've left the shows, the other says differently, so it will be interesting to see.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 10, 2022, 06:22:07 PM

Saw the episode with the two guys and yes, it did like straggly but I also think it was because it was not a settled garden - I did learn a few things - had no idea Lavender keeps away flies - Hiding the garbage bins with a simple short fence I liked and could see that as a solution to hide the AC compressor - I remember when Ginny you used to talk about your grapes and selling them - do you still make grape jam?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 11, 2022, 08:04:01 AM

No, I don't can any more, the pots are too heavy.

You CAN pick up some really good tips on these shows. Yesterday we had one for a woman and her 82 year old mother, who was limited in mobility and liked birds. But both the final designs had steps but one elongated them and one put a sort of ramp for a wheelchair, otherwise I don't think the lady could have gotten to the bottom of the garden, but they fixed up a nice deck where she could see several features nicely with a rail. They seemed happy with it.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 11, 2022, 01:12:23 PM

I thought the same - or at least rails on both side of the stairs - it all seem to be filmed in rainy weather but it was an attractive finish - the larger deck was perfect wasn't it - not sure of the bushes growing through the two blanks - had they not attached them to each other or used a hook type connection would allow the better care for those two end bushes or whatever they were and frankly the wood slate tree or leaf shaped stands were interesting however, If it were me I would have replaced them with miniature fruit trees that really do not grow to be much taller - I think they were interesting it is just I would prefer nature over faux tree structures.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 15, 2022, 08:36:04 AM

And then the day you wrote this there was one that totally turned me off, the two young parents with two very young children, wanting a nature like preserve so the children could appreciate nature. That sounds wonderful but what they got from Charlie was a pool, OK danger danger, one's a toddler and the other a babe in arms, and 3, count 'em THREE beehives in this long narrow garden?

They kept saying the children would always be attended.

We had three beehives and a beekeeper back in the day, they were in the woods about 1/2 mile from the house. OK the bees came to the house (Italian bees, the beekeeper said you could pet them they are so tame, etc.) He said bees are OK, just don't get between them and their hive when they are going out and when they are going home. Nice thing to remember.

Can't imagine three beehives in such a small space with small children running about. Turned me right off.

______________________________

Yesterday we had the two neighbors living in row houses combining yards, that one was the Rich brothers and very nice. I hope that relationship between them lasted, otherwise there might be an issue in sharing a garden with a new tenant.

_______________________

These are quite old shows and a lot of the entire episodes are on youtube, actually, if one wanted to see one and not stick to the somewhat rigid schedule.

________________________________

A sad one perhaps yesterday with the Black Clauchrie or something house. It looks as if possibly in 2022 it did not make it? I hope that does not mean the couple split up, which seemed to be possible in the series I saw yesterday. They list events on Facebook but apparently there's nowhere to book. Maybe they've gone private, they have so many customers. Or they are just living there happily, it lists weddings and so forth....I don't know... It is very hard to find anything where you could actually see a price or could inquire. On Facebook they give only a link to a video (and this is 2011) which is no longer working.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 15, 2022, 12:46:19 PM

One thing and another I've missed the last few Garden Rescues. Nice to know some are on Youtube - need to check them out and see if some of my favorite gardens are available - I saw the one with Charlies' pool and a split rail fence with, is it called a stile that you step up on that runs crossways to the fence so you can climb over the fence - did not see bee hives though so it must have been a different family.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on June 15, 2022, 01:48:07 PM

My neighbor "bee-sits" several hives on the lot between theirs and mine for a local veterinarian. They're fine, MOST of the time. However, one day a summer ago, they were particularly aggressive. They stung him (he went to ER) and me (I went to my NP the next day) with an arm quite swollen...and had to go back two days later. They'd had 3 more patients with bee stings.

So, I, too wouldn't want small babies out and about with them.

If they have a pool, they need one of those safety covers, as well as a fence. The pool cover can only be opened by an app on the cell phone of Mom or Dad.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 16, 2022, 10:32:49 AM

Yeah, I think that's a really bad idea, the bees. I did not know that about the pool cover, that's cool!!!

Today's person also wanted a bee hive in the middle of a city row house garden. At least there are no young children there.

Very hot here. Unfortunately I haven't been able to even get IN the gardens yet, with the knee. I did plant in a shade covered pot, the two sets of plants sent me which there is no way I could have gotten in where they should be. So the beautiful garden shown above is pretty much now a mess while the perennial one has started to bloom on its own, which looks nice.

So one does what one can. I need to get a hose attached to the watering of the long garden border next.
The current one blows water all over the house foundation, not good.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 20, 2022, 09:34:51 AM

So here today on DIGI free to watch on ipad or phone or PC we have at 11 and 8 pm Birkenhead: Musician Gareth is in need of a total garden re-think at his Oxton home. This is a garden than is best seen from his upstairs living room windows, so will either Charlie Dimmock or the Rich Brothers be able to come up with a suitableover-view

So I finally got out to water this morning. The Japanese Beetles are running rampant through what's left of the roses and there's not much else. I do have dahlias, and huge snapdragon stems, I need to rethink this poor garden, it seems the experts are right and roses do NOT like sharing their space. However I have plans anyway. Rabbits have eaten my gallardia in the other bed down to the ground. I have plans there, too. It's to be 105 this week, however!!!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 23, 2022, 09:30:35 AM

These Garden Shows on DIGI are quite old. Apparently the Rich Brothers are not appearing in the newer series, most of which can be seen on youtube. Charlie is there but they are gone, although there is a note that they will be reappearing in what's shot this year. Their substitutes were...not the same and I did not like the current 2022 series which is on youtube now. So I look forward to their return, the current shows on DIGI are quite good.

I did look up the house done yesterday, the one with the man who was an antiques expert, and was doing car park antiques sales on his acreage. It seems that Ruth worked in vain there, he had sold out and was in the news yesterday, actually, as he's been robbed at his new location, and he blamed the show for calling attention to his priceless antiques. Something to beware of, he did have many beautiful ojbects d'art, MANY, his house was a museum of beautiful things.

Today's program here at 11 is Ruth joins John and Flavia Philips at Heath House, their gothic mansion in rural Staffordshire. John's family have lived on the land as far back as the 16th century, and the house has stood since 1840. Now in their 70s, John and Flavia are finding the property, along with the 480 acres of land, is becoming a financial and physical drain on them. The Philips believe the only way out is to sell Heath House.

uh oh, I hope this is not another failure.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on June 23, 2022, 12:23:28 PM

Wow he has a point with the treasures in these old houses being brought to public attention and now I can see the reluctance most have in turning their homes into tourist attractions. The cost of security must be huge.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 18, 2022, 11:45:23 AM

Yes, they are all to a theme, and kind of depressing. This last one last week was gigantic and just falling apart, and the cost of running it for a month was astronomical. You have to admit, though, some sympathy for them, as you'd not want your house overrun with gawkers either. I always thought the Highclere Castle folks docents were a bit....off putting...... but then it's not my house light-fingered folks are meandering through, either.

I'm finding in the gardens here that the perennials are now holding forth and the beautiful hydrangeas, strawberries and cream I think they are (I have 3 white variant varieties planted in the "front" of the house where people drive up) and even though in the 2nd year and un-pruned from, last year are just doing fabulously, they are not caring about the knee, they are shining white in all their glory at the moment, so instead of all flat Of The Same Level greenery on the foundation for the first time they are elevated several feet above, and the contrast has made a WONDERFUL appearance and they did that all on their own. I am so pleased with them. I only planted them because Jane said she had some, and boy am I glad I did.

I have learned from this that you want your base to be in perennials that don't need fuss and bother and a good knee to still look fabulous.

As it's way too hot to do anything, that's good to know.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 18, 2022, 03:41:59 PM

I'm lucky to keep my grass alive - only allowed to water 2 days a week

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on July 18, 2022, 06:49:31 PM

Ginny...Glad your hydrangeas are looking good. Mine here are just beginning to form buds. It's now so hot and humid and no rain, that I've been watering all day hoping to keep my perennials alive. I only planted two hanging baskets with annuals, when I used to plant a lot...but I can't do it anymore.

Barb....I don't water my grass. But, I know you want to have your house look good for sale time.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 19, 2022, 10:19:58 AM

Yes Jane, true however I did not water a couple of years back when we had a very hot summer and the gofers took over and so I had hundreds of holes in the yard from gofers followed by ant hills that were really ant mounds - what a mess and far more expensive to repair than if I had paid the price and watered - can't win for loosing as the saying goes...

For sure though where I am going one of the first things I'm installing is a sprinkler system - dragging these hoses around is wearing me out so I do not get done much else. With a sprinkler only 10 minutes a day keeps things from drying up. I notice any weakened limb on trees are actually drying up in a couple of days and falling off the trees - I have one where the bark is splitting and falling off. Looks like this is a world wide weather event and so many are using it to sell something.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 19, 2022, 01:07:11 PM

Yes, I have to say, after watching all these marvelous gardening shows in the morning on this DIGI free internet channel that I am getting a world of ideas, but the thing I still hate the most is DRAGGING A HOSE.

I hate dragging hoses, like the plague, just hate it. Every year I wonder anew at how difficult it is. How difficult can it BE? You just unwind the stupid hose where it was put when the lawn was mowed. But it IS. How much easier it would be to turn on something or even have a timer set and let IT turn on something, though it's so hot hoses here just burst if left with water in them.

You'll laugh at me but last year I would get in the golf cart (I told you you would laugh) and pull out the hose that way till it was straight from its coil, and then " drive it" by puling it over to the garden and make the cart do all the work. Takes some maneuvering, for sure. How stupid that looks in print, but when you hate struggling with something you find a way to do it. Of course this year nothing is done by me, that's why I'm so thrilled to see anything surviving.

REALLY hot and humid and I see that the middle of the country is setting records for heat. It's always hot here in the summer. I am surprised that Miami is not 200 degrees but apparently it's never gotten to 100?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 02, 2022, 10:06:02 AM

Well for Pete's sake. All summer, all Covid Summer I've been watching DIGI which Barbara recommended and enjoying the Garden Rescue and the Stately home rescue and now it's gone. It SAYS all good things must end, we wish you well and off it goes.

But it's on Youtube: https://stream.how/show/garden-rescue?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Search&t_source=64&utm_campaign=2760&gclid=CjwKCAjwlqOXBhBqEiwA-hhitI-quprcmJOL9eLWcEVAR_BxKOLC3j-h06wv1ZwAT9uxgkKBBuA_GBoCEvAQAvD_BwE All the episodes apparently.

Irritating. Especially for those of us in the US who can't get it otherwise. And when I click on this it says you can watch it if you have Prime Video which I have. If one does not have Prime Video Youtube DID have individual episodes and now they are as of today only "previews."

So irritating.

In Edit: And more irritation, Prime says I can watch it now with a "free trial" of "Inside outside," no thank you. I'm done with free trials which result in 5.99 per month. How irritating can you get? If Prime Video and Brit Box won't do it, I guess I won't see any more of them. Such a shame, these are old programs (2016, 2017) and we still can't get them.

In Edit II: Here IS one from 2021, it's different from the early ones, but we can still see a program. I liked the 2016 ones best: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x81h813

And here's a bunch of them from 2022, but not the same cast: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8ch50e

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 03, 2022, 12:28:06 AM

Oh no... you are right... just turned the computer version of Digi and same message - shoot shoot shoot - appears they are forcing us to pay for any decent TV - I am so disappointed - will have to look for some of the Garden Rescue's at least on Youtube but I so enjoyed also the old Midsummer Murders - as close as you can get to a cozy on TV - OH and I really enjoyed the Australian police show that was in the small town of Mount Thomas - forgot the name - and on Thursday early evening there was a great cooking show with James Martin, well known in Britain - the facebook page to Digi has several posts noting with sadness the loss of the channel...

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 03, 2022, 08:45:26 AM

People like British TV, but the DOLLAR rules.

To me that's unwise. Nobody is going to pay for 2011-2016 programs except out of nostalgia and I did not like the 2021 shows I saw.

While YouTube is still free, we may get to see some shows.

Bummer!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 03, 2022, 08:46:58 AM

I have to say I'm REALLY in Poirot Land now and I'm so bemused at the comments on YouTube and on Amazon about David Suchet and how good he is in this Covid pandemic. We need a fan club, I am SO enjoying his books and films.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 03, 2022, 09:48:09 AM

Never thought of it - yes, the dollar rules - but then their ads were not about re-useable products - mostly donate to some cause or insurance which you do not switch companies often enough plus health insurance is difficult to sell on TV - too many variables within a policy - well it got us through the last year and I notice our PBS channel is carrying Masterpiece and other Brit TV on Saturday and Sunday night again - here in the Houston area they are showing Poirot late on Saturday on their PBS station - last week was a show I had never seen - so it appears I will be trading one lineup for another -

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 15, 2022, 01:55:18 AM

Finally looked for and found a whole slew of Garden Rescue shows on Youtube - it appears in 2021 the Rich Brothers left and this new guy with a strange hair cut took their place and then in 2022 a whole crew of new faces took over - Did not like any of the designs and Charlie really put on a lot of weight - every garden looked like it was created for shock value - none were inviting in my estimation - Sure hope you are right Ginny and the Rich Brothers come back and bring less 'mod' or 'punk' or whatever they were and more sophistication with clean lines and outdoor craftsmanship back to the series - even Charlie's designs I thought were more livable with all her penchant for pergolas and ponds when she was competing with the Rich Brothers.

I saw one show that Charlie designed for a family with two small boys - one just starting to walk and another about a year older - all she had on the side was some sort of workbench with two metal bowls flush to the table that the older of the two was already bringing a bowl full of water around the garden with no idea what to do with it and there was no grass area for them to play much less a swing or room for a swing - lots or raised boxes full of flowers that you know the boys will be tempted pull out and will be scolded - If i were those parents I would be angry after spending all that money and they will have to take some of it down just to have yard space for their growing boys. They live in an area where the houses were all attached and no one else had any kind of garden - A tree that would grow big enough to also provide shade for the yards next to theirs would have been welcome.

Big disappointment finding these shows especially after the Digi network disappeared I thought there would be something to enjoy - no wonder the network disappeared if that is the show they were handed to air - I could not see even the corny ads they had paying to put their ads on that show...

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 15, 2022, 10:42:50 AM

I agree totally with this: Finally looked for and found a whole slew of Garden Rescue shows on Youtube - it appears in 2021 the Rich Brothers left and this new guy with a strange hair cut took their place and then in 2022 a whole crew of new faces took over - Did not like any of the designs and Charlie really put on a lot of weight - every garden looked like it was created for shock value - none were inviting in my estimation - Sure hope you are right Ginny and the Rich Brothers come back and bring less 'mod' or 'punk' or whatever they were and more sophistication with clean lines and outdoor craftsmanship back to the series - even Charlie's designs I thought were more livable with all her penchant for pergolas and ponds when she was competing with the Rich Brothers.

It seems to me that the Rich brothers (hardly the "boys" the first show portrayed them as) got tired of the show, despite really being the stars, you could see it here and there with the oldest, David (the shorter one) occasionally, and backed off during Covid. Now apparently they are coming back, at least they ARE filming this year. Wonder when we'll get to see it? If ever. Wonderful publicity for them, I doubt they need it, but it's great advertising.

But you are right, those new shows are unwatchable. Unrelatable cast/ too much the clown/ bad designs. I also would be PO'd to pay that money and get those results.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on October 15, 2022, 11:17:58 AM

There's a new show I've just caught sight of, it's instant garden or something like that, lots and lots of construction of benches out of pallets, and all in one day. Nevertheless they do a good job and sometimes a spectacular one. It's on now and one can tape it, on a new channel here as well, which shows British programming, but is an old one, channel 40 here in SC. I hope it makes it.

Gardenwise here, we're to have our first frost. What a disappointing year it has been with my sprained knee, watching things die. The side garden is a nice green garden, it does look presentable, or as presentable as it can with every single flower eaten to the ground. Every single one by deer, rabbits, and groundhogs. It's a veritable zoo parade out here. The garden in the triangle is totally overgrown.

But the hydrangeas have flourished and been quite beautiful. I'm very gratified to see them.

Also the rose arch has been spectacular and the little walled garden has somehow sprung to life, those snapdragons everybody told me were annuals and here in SC would die and were planted too late a year ago are still not only alive, here in their second year, they are 3 feet tall, and blooming, and hanging on for dear life. Between them and the roses that little garden has held its place and there are even some giant dahlias blooming now. AND two small pink vincas somehow found their way to the front of the bricks on the lawn in the grass and are growing and blooming. So much for "annuals."

In other words, what should not have lived in this great heat and drought has held on anyway. And really when you can do nothing about it, it is very heartening to see. Of course it's nothing like it was, but it's trying and that's all we can do. We're to have a frost in a couple of days, some severe temps actually, but only for a night or two. I'm going to try to do something to save them.

What's happening in your garden?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on October 31, 2022, 03:24:03 PM

This is the view or partial view behind my computer at the moment:

(https://www.seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/fallwindow%202022.jpg)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on November 01, 2022, 10:34:02 AM

Gorgeous.

Our leaves were beautiful this year as well, but they're mostly on the ground now.

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on November 03, 2022, 01:21:17 PM

Wow - delicious - looks just like a calendar photo for October or November - Must be difficult not to gaze at all that color rather than reading and typing away on the computer - where I'm going I will see color however, not until the end of November into December - a variety of trees and lots of pine grow east of Central Texas - I will be on the southern edge of what is called the East Texas Piney woods - even Maples grow!- Here it is Live Oak after Live Oak - no pine or maples - a few different kinds of deciduous Oaks, Ash, Cypress by the rivers and creeks, Hackberry and China Berry tucked in here and there - however, lots of flowering bushes that tell the seasons - in another week or so any open land left wild and even a few homeowners front yards will burst into bloom with a yucca we call Spanish Bayonet - large white blossoms that will bloom till about the New Year.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on November 03, 2022, 03:10:52 PM

Thank you both!

It IS hard to take your eyes off it. It's been that way at least a week, but yesterday as I came back home there was a carpet of gold leaves when I stopped to get the mail and the sugar maple near the road is shedding THE most gorgeous mustard yellow leaves in drifts. When I was a child in PA we'd make forts of those leaves in the churchyard and play all kinds of games. I couldn't resist a shuffle through them. :)

I put that up yesterday as a background on the computer when doing two zoom classes from the guest room, but in front of me on that end of the house, that entire northern side of the house through the window was in red. Bright red, dogwoods, oaks, maples, but now as I look out the window toward the road (the photo here) the leaves are flying like the Night Before Christmas poem, and I have a feeling that we're about to lose ours, too. The dogwoods have been the most spectacular I have ever seen and they are stubbornly hanging on to big red/ orange leaves while the rest blow by.

I really love fall, and this has been the prettiest one we've had in years.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on November 30, 2022, 08:16:10 AM

And those were not edited photos too. Lately when I get a photographic puzzle online they have amped the colors up so much to the point that it looks like a child colored it. That photo above does not, believe it or not, really show the intensity of color of the red.

But they are all gone now.

Those snapdragons I was told should have been planted in the spring as an annual are still going strong, or a couple of them are, and until a day or so ago still had some blooms, and we had one night at 28 degrees, but it may make 70 tomorrow.

I have never seen anything like it, totally untended because of the knee, broiling summer, no water, and one of them 3 feet tall and wide. I don't know what to do for or about them.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on March 14, 2023, 08:30:48 AM

Gardening wise, here we are March 14, totally crazy weather. Yellow pollen everywhere. We've had 70 and 80 degree weather in February, but last night was 31, in the 20's tonight, can't plant anything. The dogwoods are starting to bloom. But everything else is about finished, forsythia, cherry trees, Bradford pears, quince, etc., daffodils all gone, azaleas doing well, but worried about our gorgeous dogwoods and these very cold nightly temperatures.

Sure am enjoying our "Squirrel Buster" bird feeders. They really work, and the squirrels are getting very fat eating the seeds scattered below, so everybody seems happy with them.

What's happening in your garden with the strange weather? Or IS it strange there?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on March 14, 2023, 04:51:17 PM

So busy unpacking I won't really get into a garden till probably the fall after we go through the heat - I did have a crew cleanup and take out three of those Sego Palm - really dislike them and half of the fonds were dead after the freeze this year - the one that was probably 8 feet in height near the front door I want to replace with a Redbud the one near the driveway was so close to the Magnolia it is probably good it is out of there and then the other was so close to a tree - when things are planted as transplants for a nursery they are so small it is difficult to realize just how big they will get - I'm thinking the one under and so close to the tree I may replace but a bit further away from the tree with a Mountain Laurel - great scented flower in Spring and green all year. Been making my list of plants I just have to have but first I want to paint the fence along the side where it goes all the way close to the street next to the driveway - there is a narrow planting space that I think I want to plant some Jasmin and Honeysuckle to go up over the fence - but before I start dreaming about what I want outside I need to get this house further along. Needs more painting and a complete redo of the master bath that currently has a tub without exaggerating that takes up with sitting a monstrous 9 feet square area - I'm replacing with a shower and taking out the dinky shower that is next to this gigantic tub with all these jets etc. Cannot even get in it to clean it - I would never get out...

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on March 14, 2023, 08:28:52 PM

hahaha

I had never heard of that palm so I looked it up, did you realize how toxic it is?

"The sago palm contains several toxic compounds. These compounds can cause very severe gastrointestinal upset, affect the nervous system, or damage the liver. Clinical signs of poisoning may occur as early as 15 minutes following ingestion, although in some cases, signs may not appear for several hours."

It's also poisonous to pets.

Good thing to remove it!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on March 15, 2023, 03:00:52 PM

Good grief - well it is growing all over although now that I think on it there is none growing on or near any of the ranches - there was not that much of it in Austin but then Austin is a bit further north in zone 8 where as this area is in zone 9 - I remember it was all over San Antonio which is well into zone 9 --- well who knew - I just did not like the look and I thought it was pushing it those who plant any palms north of San Antonio - all it takes is one bitter cold snap that lasts for a couple of days and they all look like brown paper sacks blowing in the wind.

There are many large trees already growing in the yard but would like more color and spring blossoms - last night I started a list of trees, bushes and perennials I love and it would be disappointing to live without them in my yard - the beginning of a plan... for now the yellow layer continues - it is a battle of which lasts longer - the thick yellow or my lungs - I've already changed out the house filter after only a week and I have two small air filters turned up full blast that have had their filters changed - ha it is war with the yellow

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 27, 2023, 04:54:11 PM

What a spring this has been! I wonder anything is alive, but it is and my rose arbor was, if possible, even more beautiful than last year, hundreds of large blooms. (It always blooms around Mother's Day). Now the little brick garden has started, and is also a delight. I thought this section is coming along color wise: (https://www.seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/_new%20garden%20spring%202023.jpg) That tag on the right is to my newest rose, John Paul II. I had one last year and due to the crowded conditions I always have in the brick garden it had to struggle to bloom but it DID. It would send out 3 and 4 foot branches and bloom the most beautiful white roses you ever saw. Perfect shape, strong fragrance. And it would keep at it. NOW it's in a giant pot and the plant has to be seen to be believed. It's already bloomed once, it's just a glory of a flower, it really is and seems very happy in the pot. So far. it's covered with buds. The old plant is happier too as it now has some sun.

However, it seems that I've lost the entire 100 foot border at the other end of the house to the deer and voles and rabbits or whatever, all I've got is a nice border grass dividing line. How frustrating! I REALLY put a lot of work into that to lose it all. Makes you want to cover it with a wire fence but how to stop the voles. Nasty things.

And that formerly loamy ground is HARD as a rock! I've pulled out all the hydrangeas in the back of it which the deer ate to the ground and put them here on the terrace in pots. They look nice but nothing like what it would have been. The other new hydrangeas around the house look really healthy and good.

It appears other than our established 50+ year old blooming shrubs, etc., for any new plantings terrace gardening and raised beds is my future, which is not all bad. It's certainly easier and more fun to maintain and it IS nice to have a lovely show to look at. This morning I discovered something which I am SURE you all knew without being asked, but to transplant some geraniums to the porch this morning I used those disposable gloves you buy in boxes of 100? Yesterday I used regular gardening gloves for the heavy work including those impermeable on one side gloves and they naturally got wet and muddy, same ol same ol, but this morning I used those thin disposable gloves, and I put 3 and 4 on each hand. Is it wet? Peel layer 4 off and you've got a fresh new start to go in the house and get water or the next plant to bring outside. Is it muddy? Peel that off and you're fresh and dry again.

Is this wasteful? I can't see how it's more wasteful than the pile of wet dirty garden gloves stiffening on the porch, you can't put dirt in the washing machine, which I rinsed off and now have to wait to dry. When you put them back on they are stiff and unpleasant. Useful, yes. The only game in town? Not for me and my raised beds any more. :)

I have joined the Disposable Culture I guess.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on May 27, 2023, 07:15:14 PM

Ginny where the soil got hard if you water a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water it will penetrate and soften the soil in a week or so - also if you spread Epsom Salts your garden will really not only green-up but bloom like never before. Spread around trees after a heavy freeze and voila the tree come back to life rather being cut for firewood.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 28, 2023, 04:39:53 PM

I'll remember that, Barbara, about the tenderizing of the land, especially since most of ours is that red clay. I have to add loam to it. There' s also a new APP for the iphone (I think its more intended for house plants) but you capture the leaf of the sad looking plant and it tells you all kinds of remedies, like coffee of all things, so I plan to try it out on the houseplants as well. I did know about the epsom salts and roses. It would be pretty easy to throw that out as well.

I'm up for whatever. :)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: PatH on May 28, 2023, 06:46:49 PM

Portland is entering its Rose Festival phase, lasting through about June 18. I always think the roses won't be blooming yet, but they always are. It started at midnight Saturday-Sunday, with a fireworks display, which was partly visible from my window. There will be entertainments, dragon boat races on the Willamette River, all sorts of stuff, ending with a parade of many floats, all constructed of roses.

Ill probably cower away from the festivities, but the rose test garden is already worth seeing, and remains so until very latte fall, 'with a huge number of experimental varieties, blooming at different times, on a slope with paths going through.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on May 29, 2023, 11:11:51 AM

OH gosh yes, the Portland Rose Test Gardens, how lucky you are.

I love rose gardens...particularly the test gardens with the new varieties. At Biltmore House in Asheville NC a couple of years ago they had some sort of International Rose Trials. I knew nothing about it!!! I wish I had, I love to see in person the new roses. You are lucky to have one permanent where you live.

Regent's Park in London had a wonderful rose garden. I haven't been since Covid but it was called Queen Mary's Rose Garden and it was SO fun to walk there and look at the varieties.All of us circling a particular bed trying to discover what THIS one is. hahaha The last time I went it was too early in the year, I think, so the experience was much diminished.

But what thrives in the UK does not necessarily thrive here, I've found. Once walking from Fishbourne Roman Palace to the train station you pass a row of houses with beautiful very small front yards with I think are called pocket gardens, which were a glory, and there was THE most fragrant rose, labelled Sheila's Perfume. It was gorgeous and you could smell it way off. It took years for it to come to the US but when it did I bought one, it failed, I thought it was me, and then another and they both bloomed once and that was it, our very hot very humid summers simply did not suit it. Apparently?

At any rate roses are tougher than people think, and if you can only meet their small requirements (like water) they reward a million times over.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on June 05, 2023, 12:53:35 PM

We were never successful with roses. This year, I'm relying only on perennials for color. I just can't get out and plant annuals anymore. I do have a lot of self-seeing balloon flowers, so I hope they will do. My clematis is also climbing and the hydrangeas look to be coming along.

Happy pretty gardens,

jane

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 06, 2023, 09:18:31 AM

I certainly can relate to that. I have been doing the same thing, inserting perennials in the brick bed in addition to the snapdragons which for some reason really do well in that bed. Roses apparently do not like any competition, their roots spread out a long way and they want a lot of water and food.

I'm finding that the older varieties, which look old, too, are doing the best but I just took a shot this morning of my new John Paul II which I'm trying in its own pot on the hot brick porch, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Here are two shots of it. This morning it seemed to be drooping a bit (https://www.seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/JP%20II.jpg) (https://www.seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/JP%20close.jpg) so I ran out and watered it. A flawless white rose. It also has black spot due to our constant rain. I've got pots everywhere again on the porch and they don't look that good.. I need some raised planters to do my puttering.

I'm with you on the perennials. I added one daylilly, two daisies, and lots of snapdragons. Even though it's an annual (but here is more a perennial in that insulating brick bed, if the cold doesn't kill it)....I can't resist a snapdragon. In this heat everybody told me I was wasting my time. Yet I saw them in Florida at Disney World and I thought surely if they can grow in that heat they can grow here. Boy do they!

I saw yesterday in the long garden some daylillies blooming!!!! YAY, they aren't all dead, after all. And some daisies.

But the perennial borders are the finest.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: jane on June 07, 2023, 12:21:20 PM

The John Paul II is gorgeous. Wherever it is seems to make it very happy.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 07, 2023, 12:53:43 PM

Isn't it? Thank you! The trick is to keep it that way. I've hit on a new rose site https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3Ge131YXD3IqGU-NOO1kw in which the guy takes a more organic approach which makes sense against spraying for blackspot (I'm sitting here with an "organic" fungicide at my feet). I'm going to try his way and see if I can possibly stop it here because again of our rainy spring, the leaves are wet all night.

I bet the colors of your perennials are beautiful together! And once planted with reasonable care, don't they make a pleasure to look at every year? And they really want to grow. I have a Lycoris at the Pump House I need to move, it's VERY old, totally unattended, and beautiful, old southern plant, I think it's known as a spider lilly, beautiful thing, and those beds are totally unattended and have been for years. I ought to go get it for its constancy and move it to a better spot. Nobody can see it there.

Yesterday in a trip to Lowe's, I saw a beautiful daisy like plant that sort of matched the one I planted earlier this year in that brick bed, blooming when only about 5 inches tall, covered with buds, and large pedals. I've not seen anything like it, but I threw away (duh!) the original label. Well here another one was in the baking sun, having been thrown onto a section of daylillies which were blooming with no pot? No pot, the roots all exposed to the sun and dry.

So I asked the cashier what I could do as it had no pot, I wanted to rescue it (it must have 14 buds on it) but there's no bar code and she and I went out and she took a pot from a dillydally and put this plant in it and then put the daylilly deep down among the other daylillies where it would get water and not get dried out, and so home I came with it. (Daylilies should not be affected by this treatment. I remember back in the day people that provided them for retail or landscaping here would dig them up and stack them, dirt-less and pot-less in stacks in the hot summer for long periods of time, the rhizomes keep them alive.) This little daylilly would get moisture and be protected from the sun until they sweep them all back into the van to go back to the nurseries. They keep a rotation going too often for my taste to try to show only something blooming, one of them told me once. Anyway, it was a slow day but more than one cashier, so the cashier could leave her post, which is all to the good for me, otherwise I'd have to have come home without it.

When I got it home it was remarkably unscathed from the ordeal and not dried out. I have no idea why not.

Now I have ordered another hydrangea, this one another Wee White Invincibelle which I already have in one section of the bed, and which is not only a really short dwarf but a lovely filler of gaps.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 26, 2023, 12:14:23 PM

I'm continuing my futile (and I thought it was futile till all the rain came, now it appears to be a lack of water causing a lot of my problems!!) attempt to garden in old age. I have bought a marvelous little mini greenhouse from Lowe's for the porch.(https://assets.costway.com/media/catalog/product/cache/0/thumbnail/750x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/9/w9_1_20.jpg) I actually thought I was buying the cold frame (which essentially is half of this and has a straight back with the raising windows). but this one was 10 dollars more, delivered free and I absolutely love it. It's small, about 3 feet long and 2 feet wide, and light to carry, and fits perfectly in one corner of the porch. The assembly consisted of screwing in some screws (supplied). My youngest son did that for me, so I'm all set and I'm going to take cuttings and grow some seeds. I'm going to putter.

And this is a nod to old age. I do have a greenhouse, a real one, and a cold frame, a big one, but time (42+years), distance from the house (considerable), snakes in residence and rot have ruined the cold frame which was made of two screen doors over the normal set up by a carpenter. And if I want to enjoy mass large scale gardening it's going to have to be by a hired gardener or something I can manage on my own. Puttering.

So my little raised brick bed continues really well, have changed plantings in it, adding perennials and using snapdragons and the miniature snowball hydrangea and little daisies with the roses, it looks pretty good. I am seriously considering making the back of it a raised bed of brick, too, on the porch. There's a guy (actually a LOT of people) taking cuttings of half a leaf of a hydrangea on youtube and I'm going to try that, too. We've got some wonderful old hydrangeas here I'd like to have more of.

The long bed which I had given up on has sprung to life and is blooming nicely, while needing weeding, and the disaster of the one in the driveway fork, due to all the rain, has produced more blooms than I've ever seen. I think they are all trying to say we need water and fertilizer, and how about some weeding?

It's to be 90 today, however, and I hope the storms pass us by, it's too hot to do anything out there now. Maybe tonight I can finish planting the daylillies, Home Depot and Lowe's have VERY good prices on beautiful ones, and you can plant them any time.

(I've also discovered that Home Depot has a provider that will send a plant any time of the year [or so it seems] in quart well rooted pots. This is a very good thing for people who live in a planting zone which the growers have stopped their shipments to. The plants are smallish but very hardy so far, and the prices at Home Depot are the best of anybody's for this service (try pricing a Wee White Invincibelle Hydrangea delivered now and you'll see what I mean.) I think so far you can plant anything with that Miracle Grow Moisture Control, water and a little shade cloth over it for a week or so, if you keep it watered.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 09, 2023, 12:30:02 PM

I am really getting into this mini gardening thing. There is much to learn about the mini Greenhouse. As my husband pointed out to me yesterday when the plants seemed to be drooping in this ungodly heat, it's not exactly greenhouse weather. No fan, no ventilation like the old big one. So am proppling up the little roofs, for ventilation. It's obvious whoever built it thought of that as it has little brass flanges which will support the roof with a slight twist...very well thought out. It's not right slap IN the sun, and I put a shade cloth over it yesterday, watered it, and it does look a little bit better. Trial and error.

The internet is full of films of root snapdragons with a cutting and glass of water, root hydrangeas by plunging in a leaf in moist potting soil, even root dogwood trees! Root the fringe bush with a cutting and water, etc., etc., etc., so am trying them all. Once I get roots, I hope to keep them alive in my little experimental HOT house till the plant gets strong enough to put outside.

It's a LOT of fun and very not labor intensive. So far. VERY much an experiment.

Happy puttering!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 09, 2023, 05:48:22 PM

Looking again at the photo you posted of the mini greenhouse I'm wondering why it is called a greenhouse - it looks so much like what we called cold frames - yes many a cold frame is wood sides with a window like structure on an angle from back to front that can easily be raised or lowered but I've seen them with plastic sides much like your greenhouse - looking online at mini greenhouses and most of them are small versions of a regular greenhouse where you can walk in them and instead of glass they are made of clear plastic - there are a few that can be placed using the side of your house or even a wood privacy fence for the back but your's you said was set up on your porch - interesting - can you put a couple of full size plants in it to protect them during the winter or is your's only tall enough for a few starter?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 11, 2023, 10:53:39 AM

You're absolutely right, there seem to be millions of choices! Here's a link to what I thought I was getting and what I think of as a cold frame, but is only the front half of what I got, if that makes any sense. I wanted something small for a corner of the terrace and it fits perfectly. I was lucky because it's twice the width of what I thought it would be.

Mini Cold Frame or What You Will (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Outsunny-39-in-x-26-in-x-16-in-Brown-Wooden-Framed-Greenhouse-Grow-House-Outdoor-Raised-Planter-Box-Protection-PC-Board-845-471/319916290?g_store=&source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D28O-028_023_LAWN_ACC-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SMART_SHP_NA&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D28O-028_023_LAWN_ACC-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SMART_SHP_NA-71700000063988474-58700005690512855-92700076912457530&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5beYvfGGgAMVDi-tBh3GjAGcEAQYEyABEgJC7vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)

The reason I'm calling it a mini Greenhouse is that's what Home Depot calls it: Here is what they call the above: "39 in. x 26 in. x 16 in. Brown Wooden Framed Greenhouse Grow House Outdoor Raised Planter Box Protection, PC Board"...hahhaa so I guess you call it what you like? Every term BUT what I think this one is: a Cold Frame. This is what I thought I was getting. I like what I got more.

These are TINY mini greenhouses, note the size given, but perfect for rooting cuttings and seeds, but even Amazon has every height, size, style material imaginable. I had no idea. Hammacher Schlemmer for 3 times the price has one raised on sticks, so it's waist high. That seems very handy to me.

What I got is actually kind of hard to find: this morning I can't find it at all in Home Depot online. There is no bottom, it sits right on the bricks. I imagine that one could use a plastic bag in a shady corner and achieve the same results, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

That's a good question on the can I overwinter a plant in it? In this area of the country it was quite difficult, even in the large hobby greenhouse we have, to keep stuff alive in some of our cold winters, we had heaters and used these giant plastic trashcans under the benches filled with water and still lost plants, but it gets quite cold here sometimes.

I overwinter plants in the house, the mini greenhouse I have is 2 feet 2 inches tall.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 11, 2023, 06:04:35 PM

yes that link shows what I would have called a cold frame - reminds me of a comic I recently saw - so much is being renamed and that is what the joke was addressing - the photo was of a pistol laying on top of a barrel turned on its end and one nearby cowboy talking to the other saying he left his cordless hole puncher on the barrel and he had to go get it... to me it was funny with not only 'things' being named differently than I would expect but all this human anatomy and activity being given names that have me at a loss for words...

Had no idea that winters get that cold in your area - but then Katha is not a big gardener and so she has no plants that she tries to keep alive during cold weather unless they are in the ground and take the kind of weather that zone is planted to accommodate - I know each fall she adds bulbs and she loves her hydrangers and does what she must to keep them during a freeze. Here we had a freeze again this year that killed off some of the bushes and the lemon tree - the last freeze in Austin was a doozy and that got whole trees but most years if the temp goes below freezing it is only by a few degrees lasting a day or maybe two and so throwing a blanket of the more tender plants usually works.

What I have to learn how to contend with is water - all the ideas I had are going out the window - the house in on a septic system that daily turns water used into a half hour of watering the lawn - the backyard especially only has 5 heads and the yard is completely watered which I'm seeing now was why that part of the fence that blew down was weak - it was getting watered every day - most plants only want water once a week or maybe twice but not drenched daily - some of the potted annuals can use that much water but most perennials and bushes it is too much - so now finding flowering perennials that I like that can take daily watering - found that Siberian Iris can as well as Canna- there are a few, very few others but those two I like how they grow and flower - wanted yellow daylillies along the fence but nope too much water - another I was hoping to plant was Lavendar which would even help keep the mosquitoes down but nope - to much water... I like the idea of a meyer's lemon tree and I have a huge clay pot which I think if I can find a stand with wheels I can move it around if it gets cold and as a starter the daily watering will be OK.

Glad now that it is taking longer to settle in - I'm learning more about how the sun passes over and now this water that is more of an issue then I ever imagined and I did learn where the north wind blows in - I must say what I did not expect, I have two towering long needle pine trees in the front and all they do is shed long needles cluttering the grass and driveway - a constant mess - can't blow them in the Bar Ditch or it will fill up with pine needle debris and be useless during the rain causing the street and the houses to flood - I also now appreciate the many native baskets made with pine needles - they are never ending and when they first fall they are still very pliable. Huh just hit me - I bet I'll be looking at racking up fall leaves - never had that in Austin - 90% of the trees were Live Oak and they don't drop their tiny leaves till Spring when the new leaves poke through and then yes, there was raking and bagging leaves but the weather was spring like in March. Both there in Austin and here in Magnolia the fall weather is not much cooler than summer - high temps until Halloween breaking the heat with a downpour about that time and then still in the 90s till Thanksgiving sprinkled in a few 80s and maybe if lucky a few 70s which is where it is after Thanksgiving with the 60s poking their head in - then for about 2 months starting Christmas it is 70s and 60s with a norther that blows in for usually 3 to maybe 4 days at a time with lower temps in the 30s and 40s -

I have noticed there is not many houses with the various cacti in their front yard and I see many homes here with roses which we seldom could grow in Austin - and so a second difference - it we has heavy lime soil in Austin where as here it must be more acid - I do note it is thick clay like soil - lots to learn about -seems most of the retail with plants are either big nationals like Home depot or Farm implement and Feed stores. Shows the area has been only developed in recent years rather than a few long time garden centers that could make a living catering to single family home owners.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 12, 2023, 09:29:40 AM

Good heavens, Barbara! I hope you're not having pools of water (mosquitoes) particularly now. These are sprinklers? 1/2 hour of sprinklers in the summer would probably be more lost to aeration and evaporation than anything else, but surely not in the winter? Wow, that is going to be a challenge. Maybe on the pine needles people would come get them for mulch, we have requests in our planted pines all the time for their use. Snakes like pine needles, too.

It's hard to kill a daylilly. They LOVE water here, can't get enough. I don't have any sprinklers so it's all by hand but boy do they respond.

For me, too, it's kind of a new world. I keep going once a week to Lowe's and Home Depot to see what they have blooming so I know what will bloom here this time of year. Home Depot has a service for their PV Plants which I mentioned before for varieties you can't get here, and they will ship them any time of the year. They also have a huge catalog of what they do have. The pots are smaller and more manageable size and price for transplanting than those gigantic pots in the store, and so far their little plants are doing splendidly, even when planted in this heat (with watering and shade cloth) but they are perennials.

The biggest shock here to me is that raised brick bed and snapdragons. In NJ and PA I was used to snapdragons. Here it's too hot or so they say. Not so. They over winter and come back with at least a dozen or more stalks (if you cut them back after the first bloom) in huge bundles that you could hardly get your arms around, just spectacular.

And I'm almost afraid to say it but the dahlias planted in it are for the 3rd year coming up and...dare I say it, spreading with no lifting or fussing at all.

So it's a new ballgame, this area we live in, and I'm really enjoying learning how to deal with what it wants instead of fighting it, as I have been doing.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 17, 2023, 09:10:26 AM

Well! My plans for the garden and my age are somewhat in conflict, but I've decided to alternate hard digging days with a Day o Rest and that's me today.

Yesterday I planted 8 new plants in this searing heat, and the only saving grace for them is it's in shade for most of the day and I'm going to water the fool out of it. The excuse I have is that I could not resist them and why on earth are the pots so HUGE? What is going on with Lowe's? Why spend big bucks even with the sale for a gigantic pot of plant when the same plant can be had by mail in a tiny pot, when, planted a week ago is growing like a weed and quite healthy?

At any rate after digging a hole to China (having watered the thing endlessly before and getting 8 tenths of an inch of rain the night before, I came upon a tunnel!

A perfectly round tunnel about a foot under the ground going endlessly into space.

I'm not much on poisoning things. I put a steel shovel in front of it. I am thinking of blocking it....maybe with a brick? Maybe with tinfoil? I have heard that mice despise tinfoil and will not deal with it? Perhaps this is a vole? A mole? My cheapest alternative is to fill the tube entrance with tinfoil. Or to put some kind of steel mesh there. I've got tinfoil.

Stay tuned hahahaha

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 17, 2023, 04:06:42 PM

Looks like I too have to change ideas about where and how to garden - in such pain and only by elimination was I able to realize it was sciatica rearing its head and I must have done too much with the only real relief other than Advil is rest. Remembered I moved two boxes of books still in the garage and where I could do it last year with no after effect I noticed this winter I was in pain but not enough to stop me in my tracks and so with that I am realizing yes, I want strawberries and tomato plants and would like lettuce that grows here in winter and not in summer when the tomatoes would peak but need to take into consideration planting any veggie and flower has to be easy to weed and water.

Since I have a wider front porch than I had in Austin with a rail fence across the edge of the porch I already have some hanging baskets between some of the uprights but what is preventing me from attaching window boxes to the rails - and so I will have a line of window boxes with strawberries and lettuce and the vine type thyme - the tomato plants I have some really large pots that I will group with tomato plants, some with herbs and a couple with flowers -

The people who owned the house before me had a good size plot behind a tool shed - probably 12 or 15 ft wide and as long but it is me getting down to the earth that would be the problem - do not like the look of those raised boxes - I may put miniature fruit trees in that spot - they need to be spaced 6 feet apart so that is a minimum of 4 but probably 6 and between them I can put matching pots of some flower that keeps bugs away.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 18, 2023, 08:48:02 AM

That sounds like a lovely plan for your porch, Barbara. I can almost see it.

It's just amazing how dumb I've been all these years, stubborn might be a better word. My DIL who is a horticulturalist would say (but only once) if you'd dead head those XXX, they will bloom again. THIS year I am taking off the old blossoms and am amazed, just amazed at the profusion of new blooms. So much for my thinking this type of rose or flower does not bloom again. Jeepers what I've missed out on.

She was amazed at the snapdragons blooming in this heat and actually looking very super. I am, too. Water is the key.

So sorry about the sciatica, I know that really hurts. My thing now is ease of as you say watering and weeding, but I have very few weeds in the brick (I guess you'd have to say it's a raised bed) bed because of the close planting, British border style. I've been watching your former DIGI channel gardening shows. This morning I was out watering the pots on the porch so they don't bake the roots in this awful heat.

To deadhead the shasta daisies, for example, in the long bed, is quite a strenuous task. You have to somehow step OVER a 12 inch high and about a 2 feet wide border of border grass, and it's difficult in the steel toe knee high wellies which I wear to keep off the chiggers and ticks. I nearly fall every single time, including yesterday, and even a rat backs off from constant shocks, so I find my enthusiasm for jumping into the bed somewhat diminished, so those are not as well trimmed as the ones in the brick raised bed, which takes 1/2 second to trim and no chiggers or ticks. I need to figure out something new to combat this situation.

I think plants are amazing. Am so enjoying this new venture and its challenges.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 18, 2023, 11:38:23 AM

Yes stepping over things much less squatting - for several years I notice the only way was to bend from the waist - where there is a will there is a way and having a lovely garden to look out on brings smiles - the older we get the more we are at home and the more we want to garden - with the baby boomer generation reaching that 'certain' age I would expect more and more easy garden helps knowing the body ages and can't do what was so simple - now every step needs a plan - dead head roses hmm thanks for that tip - the past owner had several rose bushes - I had not planted roses for at least 40 years and when I did, back in Austin, I had no luck - after 2 seasons they just died - my mom always had lots of roses in her garden and she also has a hillside full of Lily of the Valley - the scent coming home from school in the spring is still a memory.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 18, 2023, 03:19:18 PM

I usually do not order things from web sites but a garden center in Oklahoma that I frequent their web site offered this booklet free and I went for it... do not know if it costs but if so it would only be a couple of dollars --- Worth It - no ads just idea after idea - this is their web page and as many photos they include on their web page there are others that are in the booklet that I found helpful - lots of container gardening and thank goodness only one using cattle troughs - ever since they became all the rage I thought in a home garden they were tacky - as bad as for awhile folks were using old bathtubs - enough - but they do show on their web page a good looking wooden container on wheels - anyhow lots of idea and again, the booklet is worth it...

https://beauty.provenwinners.com/

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 19, 2023, 02:57:04 PM

OH you are SO right. And I do like it when everybody is right!! How often does that happen? :)

Those people are the SAME ones I have been talking about who supply Home Depot? And I've seen them at Lowe's too. And in following your link I see MANY booklets on color all year long and planning and I downloaded them all but the one on Gardening Simplified, which is a lovely magazine they send you when you order something from them, I have the 2023 one and it's wonderful. I don't know how they print them free, it's huge and full of glorious photos and information and showing how they fit, but I want the one you have so have sent off for it, The Gardener's Idea Book, and apparently that one comes annually.

The pdf's are really great, too. Free, colorful, and a great resource!! Thank you for putting that in here, I had no idea they offered so many publications free.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 27, 2023, 06:09:03 PM

Hotter than hot here, humid, best to stay inside.

I had wanted a plant called Little Lime Punch (https://www.bluestoneperennials.com/img/HYLI/650/HYLI-0-Hydrangea-Little-Lime-Punch1-pw.jpg.1670877886.webp) which starts out a white hydrangea but turns all shades of pink at the last, and is about 3-4 feet tall and wide. It's a new thing. I have two other new dwarf white hydrangeas already in the long border and wanted something to be in the center as a show stopper there. I've got the Little Lime Hydrangea at the house and like it, and this is a new variety of it.

They have them here and in Greenville at astronomical prices, so I thought to look online. The cheapest price was Amazon, 1 gallon pots, shipping free with Prime, so I went with them.

They just came. The PO brought two very tall boxes to the porch. The boxes were warm but were so thick and tall the contents were not affected in any way! I took them outside in the shade to unwrap. Golly moses. Huge plants, must be 18 inches tall, all filled out, not one leaf broken, nor one stalk, and the kicker in this blistering heat is they were actually coolish and moist, still wet. I don't think you could get a prettier plant if you stood in a garden center here, fainted from the heat, and put them in the car to come home.

AND they are PW plants and guess what magazine they included with them? The Gardener's Idea Book! hahaha

I can see in the book what you mean, Barbara, in that the "horse trough" "raised beds," (because that's what they are), are really not attractive although they are VERY popular.

The best use I've seen of those metal horse troughs are as little chick brooders. They work very well in that situation. I first saw them that way in a farm supply store: ingenious!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on July 28, 2023, 04:15:56 AM

Here they come in many many sizes - I think according to size they are called either cattle or horse or pig or whatever troughs - they are either round or oblong and the low round ones I could see as perfect for those baby chicks - the round ones are usually only a foot high but come in several diameters - some as wide as 16 feet, where as the oblong ones are up to two and a half feet tall and the lowest oblong is a foot high and also in several lengths. Many of the small shopping strips use them at the edge of the walking area spaced about 12 feet apart and full of mostly flowers but a few went ahead with things like holly or rosemary which here rosemary is an evergreen and one plant continues growing with thicker and thicker main stalk for years - the shops or retail management company then have a natural base for decorating during the holidays.

I don't mind them at all when they are used in public places like strip centers and I have seen a few attractive front yards with 3 large at least 12 foot circular ones planted and one usually planted as a water garden but the oblong ones in various heights in a home garden I just think is tacky - if they at least would paint them a dark green or grow something that would trail over the edge - they are especially, no other way to say it but down right ugly when the summer green and blooms are over and there is just a trough full of dried stems - most of the oblong ones are those 2 to 3 foot high 6 to 8 feet long - although they probably last better than a wooden raised bed but regardless wood or metal that is an awful lot of hand turning the earth each Spring - just that size area with some sort of metal edging surround you could probably hire someone to turn the earth using a spade.

To my way of thinking if you are going for a raised bed I think fill it with flowerpots that are so much easier to tump and replenish the earth - Saw what I thought was attractive but definitely a farmhouse look - a long about 10 foot table made from mostly 2 by 4s so it was chunky and the table was probably 3 feet wide that she plopped in the middle of her lawn and just full of all sorts and sizes of flowerpots - some with veggies growing and some with flowers - it looked great but not if you are going for a traditional manicured look.

With our heat no planting till late in September - this is more like a winter dormant period - even watering daily will barely keep the flowering annuals - even the new perennials or bushes planted in the Spring will struggle through most of the next 2 months.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on July 28, 2023, 08:35:09 AM

:) I'm sitting here at 8:30 am soaking wet, having turned on the sprinklers (the ones I bought which stand up on legs) till I get 1 1/2 inches on the handy little rain gauges I bought. Supposedly 1 inch a week is what you aim for in in- ground plants. Potted plants need more.

For baby chicks I would want a steel tub about 3 feet high and maybe 4-6 feet long, depending on how many chicks you had, that would be perfect for 25.... You can easily cover it with screening to keep out the critters and have your heat lamp right over it. Perfect. I wish I had had that much intelligence 45 years ago. It would have been a LOT simpler than what we did.

I've got quite a few custom made brooders from wood in the barn when the...steel troughs would have been perfect. I about fell over when I saw them in the local feed and seed and all they had (this was indoors) was a heat lamp, not even a top. The ingenuity of the American farmer is sometimes amazing to see. Of course at one time we did have as many as 300 chicks in 4-H and FFA.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 01, 2023, 08:31:43 AM

One thing you can say for gardening in your old age: WHERE are the omnipresent Yard Men of Agatha Christie's day? Where they come to you on Mondays and do somebody else in the neighborhood Tuesdays, or whatever you can afford? Where ARE they again?

One's "eyes are too big for one's stomach" when it comes to buying plants. One is buying and buying to have a complete looking "instant garden," so, they are large, and the holes they require need to be large, too. Where are all these British gardeners for hire I see in the films? hahaha

What a learning curve a garden is!!! You really DO need to pay attention, apparently, to what actually grows IN your area. Who knew? And the mini greenhouse is also a learning curve...It's fun, though I can't help but notice the Instant Gardens on the programs I watch have a LOT of diggers to help.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 02, 2023, 01:39:31 AM

Yep and older high school students no longer want to work... and with the government paying those in the low income bracket there is no incentive to do low paying gardening work. As to choosing plants that will grow in your area it is deeper than that - most plants today, unless a local grower with a private small sales location, the plants are shipped in from out of state especially the larger garden centers their plants come from mostly in California, Oklahoma and Tennessee - I was shocked to find that most of these growers are part of a huge corporation that many of the older brand names remain and are divisions within the corporation.

For instance Michigan Bulb includes: Breck's, Breck's Gifts, Gurney's, K. van Bourgondien, Michigan Bulb Company, Spring Hill Nurseries, Bits & Pieces, Spilsbury, Weeks Roses, Iseli Nursery and, Gardens Alive!

And those sacks of soil - glory only knows where the soil comes from - my grass man cleans up the lawn for the local Home Depot and his conversation with an employee says that their sacks of soil comes from India.

My thinking is to put in the ground bushes that bloom - some vines for additional color with some sort of evergreen bushes to visibly hold it together and then use large flower pots that to me are more attractive than a raised flower bed and then smaller large pots that can be more easily picked up without a wheelie or wagon and have a large high table where they can be tended and then put back in their spot for a few months till that flower's growing season is over and then picked up and change out for other flowers - I also think we need to have a pile of dirt gathered from our yard or nearby area that we can enrich ourselves so that we create a potting area that as a work area potting area can be attractive - in fact I could even see a shed like structure with three sides or just a roof on poles with the north side a solid wall - for instance, I love to see a wash-line with especially sheets pegged and blowing in a breeze and so a potting area could be just as homey attractive.

Thinking back I never had the kind of formal afternoons or evening where the garden had to be manicured perfect for guests - mostly the yard was for family enjoyment - picnics we seem to go places rather than have meals in the backyard - used to like late afternoon and evening ice tea while reading or doing handwork - when my children were young they played in a large sandbox we built or were on the swings while we puttered in the veggie or flower garden - we did often eat breakfast in the back yard but too hot by the time lunch came around - when it was really hot there was late afternoon or evening running through the sprinklers and if it was real hot we hand cranked some ice cream for supper - each with our own soup spoon we ate right out of the tub - we could rinse off with the hose and back then even drink from the hose. All that to say I love seeing flowers growing but the idea of one of these beautifully landscaped yards is nice to admire and dream about but in my reality it never was and frankly, do not see it in my future.

There is a women in Norway whose blog I follow and she has a greenhouse made with heavy clear plastic - she uses it as another sitting room with her desk and comfortable chair and a small table and chair - the green house is full of plants in pots on old tables, hand built wooden shelves and just outside the door she has created a small flagstone patio that appears to be maybe 9 feet square surrounded with bushes and between the bushes, mostly evergreens are some pretty good size pots of growing flowers and some veggies - of course there is a very short summer in Norway and so all the pots must go into the green house by early September but from about mid October till mid April even the green house is too cold - however, the idea of using large flowerpots I think is what is doable for aging gardeners regardless the growing seasons. The big event for her is the spring blooms on various trees and later wild berries that grow on the hillside behind her house that she and her grands make into jams and various cakes.

She has it down so that all summer she keeps up with only one day a week of gardening and then a couple of full weeks in early spring and a week moving things for winter in early October - the majority of her time in the greenhouse she reads and writes and keeps her blog and she is an avid painter of flowers using water colors and then uses her paintings as her guide as she crochets in yarns the colors of the flowers she has painted - she usually travels to Italy for two to three weeks each year and with such little work her neighbor comes over and waters everything a couple of times while she and her husband are gone. She is only in her mid 60s however, I think her life is an example of how it can be done - most of us as we age our live becomes less community or building a social group and more about our own hobbies, family plus any close friends that have not passed. Garden vistas are great but do require more energy to keep up then we have and there no longer, as this started out with the bemoaning of no longer are there gardeners for hire. I notice even the vineyards have to put on daily a huge spread of almost gourmet like food to attract grape pickers.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 03, 2023, 04:17:32 PM

Tra la - talk about a raised garden bed - this I think is a nice idea - window sill height for a porch -
https://www.hometalk.com/posts/how-to-create-a-non-toxic-raised-garden-bed-44643205

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 04, 2023, 08:17:10 PM

Yes, that is pretty. Lowe's has some like that, here's one with wheels.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/VEIKOUS-47-2-in-W-Raised-Garden-Bed-Planter-Box-with-Four-Wheels-and-Legs-for-Herbs-and-Vegetables/5013064141?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-lwn-_-ggl-_-PLA_LWN_123_Live-Goods-_-5013064141-_-online-_-0-_-0&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhav73ZzEgAMVjntMCh2BjQjQEAQYBCABEgLEYvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Very attractive.

I've been watching them make them all week on the British Gardening show and they all have that liner like this one does instead of using all those chemicals which I personally would not use at all. I would think fir would be a great repellent for water but this one below is not fir.

The PW Ideas book came and it's nothing like the one they sent by the same name with the last plants, this one is a long rectangle about 5 inches tall and about a foot wide, and it IS full of very pretty ideas. And plants.

Pulled my right knee again so the 6 new plants will have to wait a bit to get in the ground. The Perils of the Ancient Gardener!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 04, 2023, 10:50:46 PM

I do like the wheels - I think I would like them even better if they were those larger wheels you sometimes see on prep tables in commercial Kitchens - I'm still caught though in how to turn the soil for the next year's garden therefore I still think it would be easier to have large flowerpots inside these raised boxes rather than filling them with pebbles and soil - Triple digit all week and forecast says next week as well - nothing to be alarmed over since it happens just about every year and unusual when we skip a summer but just trying to keep plants alive takes all resources much less try to plant anything.

Across the half of the front porch I've 6 hanging baskets of impatiens and on the step a large potted plant that I frankly have no idea what it is - the potted Lavender I had on the step dried up and died and so this replaced it just before the 4th - Keeping with the 4th it has clumps of tiny red florets that form one flower - and so whatever it is it is hanging in there and even blooming - then a few weeks ago I put my good size Christmas cactus on the porch and over under the trees is a really large pot of Caladium - in this heat I must water all these potted plants at least daily and some days its morning and evening - I did add some Epsom Salts to the water once a week and that really helps - most days I water using a watering can and other days I use the wand on the hose which really douses them but such a hassle winding the hose back in place when I'm done.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 05, 2023, 09:05:39 AM

Your porch sounds lovely, Barbara!

Flower pots inside the box also sounds very clever, you avoid several issues that way.

And there are pots and then there are POTS. All shapes and sizes. Much easier to maintain, too.

Totally with you on the hose issue. MAJOR pain in the neck.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 07, 2023, 01:42:38 PM

now here is an idea worth a try -
https://www.hometalk.com/posts/outdoor/garden/no-dig-weed-suppressing-paper-bag-garden-44646841

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 11, 2023, 06:14:09 PM

Well, that's certainly innovative! :)

I notice how carefully they place the front of the bags so it's not looking like Halloween leftovers which it kind of does. Note how the fronts of the bags is for the most part behind some kind of little barrier.

Give it a try! What have you got to lose? And report back?

Talking about innovation, here's a show I really have gotten sort of obsessed with: The Instant Gardener. This is YOUR fault as it's part of that Digi channel you used to talk about.

These are on youtube and I think they are also on PBS as I've taped a lot of them, and there are two seasons of them to see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nOcaNeTOY0&list=PLg2CQ-JgmXQlCqVUwAHGww8EVBmtX6u0C

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 12, 2023, 12:05:31 AM

I've seen The Instant Gardener but timing was off for me since I was still mourning if you would the loss of the brothers - forgot her name but she with her long hair constantly in the way and not tied back annoyed me where as the Brothers I thought had more innovative designs and I liked their personalities even if the small one, do not know if he was older but to me he appeared to be older and he was constantly annoyed with whatever her name was - all in all I liked their gardens - how the entire area was planned - this Instant Gardener not as much - he is a good worker but something is missing and not that much garden design talked about.

I was also down with the entire network Digi disappeared - there is one called Dabl but not near as good - they have more decorating of homes and looking for a home in the country but the personalities don't have much personality compared to those who moderated shows on Digi

learning about weather patterns here in Magnolia which are far different then what I was used to in Austin - seems like Spring is one torrential rain storm after the other till you wonder if you need an ark and then summer is hot and dry so the clay like soil gets as hard as a rock - hoping for some rain when this summer heat is over but do not expect any typical cooler fall weather - we shall see - one thing lots more trees and the trees all grow very tall where as in Austin it was 90% live oak and they take forever to get large but even as large as they get they are as wide as they are tall where has here there are all sorts of trees, mostly pine that are so tall they blow severely in the wind - scary since the area has grown with more and more housing subdivision so that there are fewer supporting trees and the wind can get to what is left constantly blowing down another huge tree. I've already lost one big tree and lots of large branches - I think I need to fill in with more trees just to save what is here. Lots to learn watching the seasons for the first time in this area.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 12, 2023, 10:06:12 AM

Yes, it's a different focus, this one, and it's old, too, I think it was in 2015 and 2016, but I like it because of the results. This one is not a contest like the other, but it's so interesting to me how he can create (using a lot of volunteer labor) so much in one day. It gives me hope for what I've taken the entire summer (with two bad knees as a result) to try to do. One day. And you've got a framework for the future.

I like him in this series. He grows on you. He's very kind. More than once a tear appears, they are helping people in most of the projects. I don't like all his designs, too bold, perhaps, for me, but some of them are fabulous, there's usually some plant knowledge you can use in your own efforts. I really like the...helpful vibe.... and the people volunteering... At the end the person the work is being done for comes out for the big reveal, and normally she or he will stand with the person who arranged the surprise...while he or she delights in the result.

On the last show, however, the husband enjoyed so much being part of the process that he stood with the workers in their line hahahaha...it's just a good hearted show.

He's got a later one and I don't like it as well, though.

And I've learned a lot, too. But one thing I have learned is exactly what you've said about the difference in Magnolia and Austin: you really have to know your location! It's amazing the difference that makes.

I mean HERE we have things that I didn't growing up in PA and NJ. We have annuals which act like perennials. Despite how cold it can get in the winter.

We have snapdragons coming back as giant bushes, despite the terrific heat. We have dahlias which don't have to be lifted, multiplying all over the place. We have vinca, an annual, coming back, and they all are coming BACK in that raised brick bed because of the heat off the terrace. It's amazing. Water I believe, has made the difference. Not one of those things did we have in old PA or NJ.

OH and...

You will be happy to hear they are making a new show WITH the two brothers, (the smaller one IS the eldest) and, if I'm not totally mistaken, the "woman with the hair," (too lazy to look up her name), and hopefully we will get to see them sometime here in the US. (I also picked up that she annoyed the older brother). hahaha She has had several shows before and since.

I kind of like the Dabl shows about finding a house, and the very end where they say whether or not the people actually bought the house or not. Vicarious fun...traipsing through homes in the UK, boy are they expensive and boy are they something else.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 12, 2023, 02:44:33 PM

Yes I picked up the smaller and from your knowing older brother was not a fan of whatever her name was - thinking on it seems to me it was a typical boys name like George or Charlie or something like that - a very traditional boys name - she to me was the definition of blousy and she brought all these crafty projects rather than substantial traditional garden eyecatchers that do not go out of style like walls - although she was good creating ponds which is here the hatching ground and nursery for tons of mosquitoes so, no way even with a pump that activates the water.

I'm in seventh heaven - talked to post office back some time ago and was told that I had to put in a request but because of my age I could put a mailbox on my side of the street - as of now they are all substantial brick stanchions with a large rural mailbox uncased in all the brickwork BUT all on the other side of the street. For various reasons I do not want to have surgery on my knees or hip and so walking has become a challenge and for sure cannot walk without my 'mountain' hiking stick - I have a walker but it is more trouble then it is worth getting it in and out of the garage - anyhow it ends up that the mail sits in the box for days and sometimes over a week - well the young mailman stopped by and chatting said why go through all the hoops and loops the P.O. requires - I have a circular drive just put a rural mailbox next to the drive by the house and he will drop the mail off in the box - Well Thursday when the grass man came he dug the hole and even set the entire mailbox up - he and his crew are always going the extra mile and now all I have to do is walk 10 steps off my porch and that I can do even on those bad days... tra la...

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 12, 2023, 09:35:22 PM

That is WONDEFUL, Barbara!! What a lovely man and a nice thing to do!!!

Restores your faith in humanity.

Also how kind of the very handy yard man!

You seem to have moved to the right place!!!

:)

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 26, 2023, 10:40:38 AM

Try Try Again Department:

I am learning a lot about growing things from seed and cuttings and how difficult it is in a mini greenhouse when it's so hot. It's very VERY hot, and the humidity is sky high. I think the poor things are baking. I have consulted every book and youtube video where they are having NO problems at all but perhaps they are not trying to do this in an oven?

No matter. I'm continuing on doggedly. I now have azalea cuttings. We have the most beautiful gigantic white azalea here, each flower is bigger than your hand and I'm rooting it to put a row of them behind my long border. Also rooting an African violet which I got one Mother's Day when we went to lunch at Biltmore, they brought an African Violet for each female diner. (I remember them doing that when I took my own mother years ago).

It's been eons and I still have the mother plant. Am also rooting one of my old roses, no idea what the name of it is, which is putting on the show of the century out there. Determination, I think I'll call it. Also one of my new daylillies has a seed pod!! YAY. Can't wait to see the resultant flower next year.

I'm pondering a new rose and I got the AARS rating for roses in the mail, so have been studying it carefully.

How is YOUR garden growing? OH I did manage to root three red geraniums which I had overwintered. Two of them are blooming. I'm going to pot them up nicely for the winter and let them bloom on the porch next year. So that IS one thing that has done well. :)

It's very hard to kill a geranium. I remember my mother putting them stalks roots and all dry under the house in PA and they came right back to life in the spring.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 26, 2023, 12:15:08 PM

hmm I wonder Ginny - here there are many greenhouse 'farms' and I notice they all have these giant - goodness at least 12 feet in diameter fans on one end of each greenhouse - I've heard not so much to cool it but to keep the air circulating - and I wonder how much humidity you live in - have you one of these thermometers that measures humidity in addition to temperature - I'm thinking in the South we live with more humidity then north of someplace in Virginia - I noticed it was August of 2019 when I took that trip with Katha back east and I had to slather coconut cream oil especially on my face and mouth a couple of times a day I was so dried out and so I'd look and see where these folks are gardening who are having all this good luck and also consider putting an oscillating fan near the mini greenhouse so there is a slight breeze going through - heat factor won't change but the heat won't settle on moist soil that could be a welcome mat for mildew

What seeds are you trying - veggies?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 28, 2023, 01:09:40 PM

here you go Ginny... https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/how-to-regulate-heat-in-your-backyard-greenhouse?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on August 28, 2023, 02:25:25 PM

Thank you Barbara, I'm sorry you had to go to that trouble. I appreciate it, though. That's more for a real greenhouse which we have and which is fitted with all that stuff. That said, i do use a shade cloth but I do like the idea of an automatically opening vent (though I at present have two open which I do manually) but if that could be done without electricity like the big greenhouse has, I'd like to look into it, it would be fun and useful. I like the idea it opens and closes itself due to the temperature.

You asked what I was growing? I have two trays of azalea cuttings which actually (cross fingers) look good, one tray of rootings of snapdragons, one of half African Violets and roses, one of seeds for Shasta Daisies (which are all sprouting) one of some Canterbury bells, and Rudbeckia which doesn't look over good, but it's early days with them, and the afore mentioned geraniums.

So no veggies or annual seeds. They would be the first to come up I think. I just realized I just threw a tomato away on the porch I could have planted to get an early start on next spring! I'll remember that when the next one gets too ripe before I can get to it. The roses and the African Violets in the house are now in the kitchen window along with two straggling baby plants from the porch greenhouse.

In the border I suddenly have two new vincas! They are from the year before last. My DIL had told me sometimes they will root, and return and they just did! It's that new kind half for sun, I can't think of what it's called, kind of red, a pinkish red, but it sure is pretty.

I saw a program on some strange little mini greenhouses and bought 4 of them. They are for inside, and the concept is intriguing. They look about as big as an egg carton doubled? And not much taller. They are coming today and I can't wait to see what they will do. If I think they will work I'll put a photo in of them....there's lots of stuff on them, and there's one woman on youtube is very persuasive, but that, I'm starting to learn, is not all it's cracked up to be.

I was somewhere the other day and thought of you, they had a huge array of those tin watering troughs that you didn't like, but they had all shapes and sizes. I think it was Home Depot. They make little small ones and all sorts of shapes which I didn't realize they came in, but they are all metal watering troughs. :) Perfect for a small flock of baby chicks.

It's still hot here, but we had a good rain yesterday and possibly this week. It looks like the hurricane will go below us. I hope it blows out to sea.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on August 28, 2023, 02:28:31 PM

No trouble Ginny - just came today in my email in that for years I've subscribed to Dave's Garden - good luck with the Azaleas - if I remember they are prolific in that area along with Rhododendron.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on September 23, 2023, 08:23:41 PM

The drought was severe - the lawn guys wanted to take down a tree that appears almost dead but I'm convinced with a lot of Epsom Salts and I just heard of fast acting lime that I purchased through Amazon together I'm betting on bringing that tree back - still green on the very top so we shall see - where the lawn receives shade during the day it is turning green but there is a whole swath in back that the sun cooks all day and it is still not showing any signs after 4 really hard rains - while the boys were here Ty broadcast for me my mixture of saved coffee grounds, Epsom Salts and Spectrum and then we had a big rain yesterday and the day before ---

What really concerns me is the vacant lot next door is loaded with dead pine trees the tallest maybe 12 feet but the majority about 8 to 10 feet - Paul is convinced they will come back but the lawn man is not - I'm considering sprinkling about 10 pounds of Epsom Salts to help along those close to my side because as is they are looking dead and being pines they are such a fire hazard and right next door - I'm afraid if I find and call the owner they will have the trees removed along with everything making it a clean sweep and I will loose the wooded buffer between me and the next house over... the trees nearest the road all seem to be fine but starting even with my house is where the damage of dead pine trees starts. He has the lot listed and so with all trees in the building area gone he can ask more for the lot. Just a few years ago when I could walk more easily I would not hesitate to do what I could to help those trees survive.

I did have a few minutes of wonder this morning - hanging across about half of the front porch there are 6 flower pots - two between posts full of deep pink, light pink, red and even some white impatiens - I notice near the end one furthest from the front door something fluttering and drinking or getting nectar from the red and dark pink flowers - it would hover and then swoop out and back again to another - finally if slowed enough to see it was not humming birds that I suspected but a large Monarch yellow and black large wings and with a blink another joined it and then a third - I bet they have started their journey south into Mexico for the winder and stopped off seeing the bright blossoms that caught their attention - they were busy for nearly 10 minutes before moving on... what a treat.

Hadn't done much with outdoor anything till I finish unpacking that yes, is still going on... stomach doing a number again as I can't find one painting that was an etching of a butterfly I had in the bathroom in Austin and the box of Christmas books that some go back to the 1950s in that every year after they wrote and left their letter to Santa on Dec. 6 the feast of St. Nickolas the next morning would be small gifts like a couple of pencils or new comb and always the collection of Christmas books that one new one was added every year - I gave most of them to them when they started their Christmas's in their own home but still have many and for all these years continued adding one new Christmas book a year and now cannot locate that box - shared my concern with Paul and he was very reassuring that they would be found - they are here and all will be fine.

Maybe just as well it is taking so long to get my house in order because I'm seeing how the land falls and where the rain flows and settles so I can see better where to plant what trees and bushes - next Spring should be garden planting time that will help me have the bird sanctuary and privacy I prefer.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on October 08, 2023, 09:35:27 AM

You don't suppose the pine trees have borers, do you? Some of ours do.

Lovely on the butterflies, what a lovely picture you paint there!

I've just brought in the majority of the plants I've rooted. I'm thinking of them as million dollar plants for the effort time and money I've spent on them and how easily I could have just bought some of them at the store. hahahaa

My seed growing has been something of a miserable failure, only one tomato plant, one shasta daisy and one daylilly, but my rootings are doing much better so far. The worst lesson I learned is don't use peat pots, do NOT use peat pots, use anything but.

I've now got 3 feet of behind the kitchen sink space in front of a window full of potted up rooted plants and a side set of rolling shelves with about 8 of the azaleas basking in the sun coming through the windows. My DIL tells me I've not rooted the flame bush but instead I have 3 gardenias, I guess I got them from the bush next to the flame bush. hahahaa But I love gardenias, too, or I would not have planted them in the first place so the novice here is growing stuff, just without labels. But it's fun, it's a harmless fun hobby. I'm going to bring in the last today, the geraniums which really rooted well, I've got 4 of them, but they are really hard to kill, too, and a tray of rooted snapdragons.

Now trying to think of what to do with all this Christmas amarylis. They are such healthy bulbs, and I think I'll try to plant them here, against the barn, and see if the heat can keep them alive through the winter . In your climate I bet they would easily grow through the years.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on October 08, 2023, 01:53:50 PM

The prediction is a colder than usual and wetter than usual winter - last winter we had another week of freezing weather than killed so many of the plants surrounding this house - it is taking forever to get this house put together and so, I did not do that much in the yard nor did I fill up any of the flowerpots I brought with me - some rather large decorative pots and the smaller are the real old clay pots that I was not giving away - the new pots are all mass produced with some other element that reminds me of plastic in the mixture.

I've all sorts of plans for next year and was going to start this fall by getting a few trees started but decided the better course of valor was to wait till the end of February - since walking is iffy on some days and kneeling is out, my plan is only plant in the ground things like bushes and a few trees and maybe some canna that take no care what so ever - anything that needs tending will go in pots - I also figured out that where those large wood plant boxes to me are ugly with those bare sides starring at you - what about picking up a couple of picnic benches that usually are made to hold 500 pounds and line a few of them up with flower pots and even paint metal chicken feed pans or better yet those sacks that you can even plant in them with a trap door to harvest potatoes - I've got my raised garden without that large expanse of blank wood or those awful metal cattle tanks starring at me - just thinking - I've all winter to dwell on this. The disadvantage is in our heat the flower pots dry out quickly where as the larger expanse of raised boxes or cattle tanks are more forgiving.

Once I put my mind on it I feel I'll figure it out - for now I still have over a dozen boxes of books and all the linens to decide their home and also desk drawers and Elfa metal sliding drawers that were emptied with the Elfa drawers stored in closets when living in Austin. Here instead of normal size even walk-ins are these monster rooms that are closets - I'm talking 11 ft by 10 ft - the smaller one is 7 ft by 10 ft. and feels like a normal walk-in and so I'm trying to keep them looking attractive - they all had, not only the top shelf all around with clothes rods under but a bank of shelves like bookcases that are at least 5 feet wide - the one closet I had the bottom of the bookcase cut off and fit under the remaining shelves my chest of drawers - in the closet no less - this move has been one adventure after the other and forcing me to accept a different life plan for everyday living - still do not yet feel this is home - I'm feeling like I'm visiting - I'm sure once everything is in place and I can use my days to enjoy again my garden, cooking, music, needlework, knitting, reading I will settle in - also living here through the 4 seasons has been a real help -

I moved in the first of December and this time last year I was beside myself with a buyer who kept postponing closing so that I was a wreck - still have not found a few very important things to me like my entire box of Christmas books, many go back to the 1950s and 60s and an etching that was hanging in my bathroom in Austin - I already know there are a couple of things the movers overlooked like an antique iron sewing machine base that I had on the patio and several drawers of kitchen items that included my good kitchen shears - the cost of moving them was too much and so I grieved my losses - however, week before last my daughter and both her boys came for several days and that was wonderful - Ty teaches in a collage in Seattle and Cade just graduated from UPenn law and plans on staying in Philly and so, it was a great meetup for all of us... Haha got away from gardening didn't I - ah so and that is why next year

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on October 23, 2023, 09:48:39 AM

I don't know how you moved at all, it sounds totally overwhelming. So much to attend to, and I'm so glad to hear about your lovely reunion there with your grandsons.

It's in the 40's here at night, and I've got all but 3 plants planted, and we're in a drought so it's kind...oh wait...I forgot, I was going to get those daylilies out of that weed infested border too.

Hmmm. So I need planting help I think for the last batch. Very large hole for a gorgeous dwarf rhododendron. And a good place to put them all. I am not wishing to encounter the yellow jackets however, and thought maybe a frost might slow them down.

I am thrilled to see that the wild dogwood which grew from the seeds I guess dropped by the birds here of the dogwood next to the terrace, has stayed alive even though I thought it was a weed and cut the top out of it last year. I hope to transplant it and hope it's really 2 trees and not a huge Y, because if it's a huge Y one part will have to go. Can't be good for the little guy.

I do like a dogwood in the spring and fall which seem to be coming faster together than I used to remember. hahaha

Good time to PLAN!!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on December 02, 2023, 12:25:38 AM

Wow did I fall onto something that gave me a wonderful evening of TV watching - The Secret History of the British Garden - fabulous - I don't subscribe to Roku but that is what it was on... how it came up I'll never figure out - the person guiding and showing etc is a Monty Don. Nice, not overly anything - there are 4 segments that run probably about 40 to 45 minutes each - the segments cover the history of gardening and those who influenced gardening for each of the last 4 centuries and so we start with the 17th century forward - although the show was produced in 2015 it stops at the end of the 20th century. The garden goes from vistas of acerage to the backyard and then flowering plants grown in a factory lide setup so that thousands can be shipped each day...

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on December 06, 2023, 09:06:57 AM

I've seen Monty Don's name before but I had no idea of his work. This profusely and somewhat startlingly illustrated article shows he does know exactly what he's talking about. I like his style:

https://www.montydon.com/thegarden

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on December 06, 2023, 02:02:49 PM

Great link - thanks...

Title: Plants from tomatoes and lettuce cores.
Post by: ginny on December 22, 2023, 04:32:58 PM

Wasn't it?

But I'm here with news. I'm almost afraid to say this lest it go belly up but I had seen on youtube two people growing plants out of very unlikely venues.

One (actually quite a few different ones, but the one I followed cut up a tomato put it in a pot of soil and then cut rose shoots and showed how to trim them, stick them right in the buried tomato quarters, and voila! In a month or so here was another rose plant.

I didn't believe him but I tried and to date I have ONE rose (one of the old fashioned ones here I don't know the name of) putting out leaves like crazy, I have FINALLY rooted a rose! I hardly know what to do and it has NOT been a month, the others are still green. I absolutely do NOT know what I am doing. I had a tomato to come up, too, but he's not doing too well, it's too cold and the light is not strong enough but they do love a Southern window.

THEN I saw this thing on lettuce? You take the spent core of lettuce (I used Romaine) put it in a little pot of soil, cut off the bottom of a liter bottle of water, upend that on it and VOILA!! I did that about 3 days ago, and I already have a huge shoot of new lettuce leaves out the top. One could cut that and eat it. Absolutely can't believe that and still don't know if I was supposed to put the cap on? Or leave it off? I'm misting it down in the bottle, I guess that's enough what with the every other day watering.

I've got 2 gardenias REALLY growing well but only one azalea to make it so far, but it's very healthy. Another OLD plant I hope to reproduce. Maybe I should have rooted them in tomatoes, they were fine when in the little mini greenhouse outdoors.

A kitchen garden IN the kitchen. They are all over youtube and they do seem to be working!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on January 02, 2024, 07:59:18 AM

Spoke too soon!!! It's dying! All those pretty leaves are dying! Am I over watering it? The lettuce looks great, however. Maybe I need to only raise lettuce?

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on January 15, 2024, 03:48:49 PM

What a treat - I have no memory of who game me my Christmas Cactus - brought it from Austin even though it had not bloomed in years - it did keep growing and spreading - had it on the windowsill in my laundry room and it was tumbling over in what at one time was a hanging pot - hangers missing but the white plastic pot that is at least 10 inches in diameter contained the ever growing plant -

Well here I put it on a wrought iron tall plant stand I had picked up years ago in Mexico and kept it on the front porch - in the fall noticed some buds and after thanksgiving pulled it back so no night light could hit it and sure enough just before Christmas buds were showing red - well last week preparing for this cold I took the plant into my kitchen and put it on a small wrought iron stand used with a Sterno to keep food warm - well in this past week everyone of the buds opened and the plant is full of these bright red shrimp like shaped flowers - fabulous show - can't believe it - and now racking my brains trying to remember who gave me the plant so I can have their image in my minds eye

I have always preferred live plants and flowers for Christmas decoration and so now debating if I should get a few more - small ones that would of course grow over time - but what a show they would make massed on my glass top dining table.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on April 20, 2024, 11:00:05 AM

Yes they certainly would, if you get the right kind. My DIL remarked to me this Christmas that I didn't need to get a poinsettia for the table in the living room, the Christmas Cactus, given to me a few years ago by a class, is literally taking over a glass table and it was absolutely spectacular. They are actually pretty all year long, but mine bloomed before Christmas. I don't think ...there appear to be two kinds, Christmas and Thanksgiving. mine does its own thing.

They love fertilizer, too.

Having sprained my left knee again I was in some despair about my little brick raised garden but when I saw beautiful iris blooming from my bedroom window in the long border, I determined to limp out and see the terrace garden too, and everything close up.

I need not have worried. We've had temps here suddenly in the 80's close to 90 this week (what strange and frightening weather we're all having) and I finally limped out yesterday to both, half afraid to even look at my little raised brick garden and to my amazement with no help from me at ALL, it's blooming up a storm. Such bloom. I have not done ONE thing except prune it back in January. The snapdragons which were last year's plants are simply breathtaking, the roses.....amazing, just amazing.

Unfortunately my rooting of plants has not gone well. I have tomato bushes talking over the kitchen sink window but all of the cuttings of outside plants have suddenly died. I had tremendous BUSHES from the gardenias, which everybody remarked on: dead. When able I am going to look at the roots because I know I CAN root them. Just need to adjust something between the flourish of people saying, wow, they are going great guns, and the sudden death. It's got to be the pots or the watering or both.

So many learning curves. But boy the pre planning really paid off.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on April 20, 2024, 01:28:07 PM

gardenias in the front of the house died off to the ground two winters in a row now - both winters had a couple of 4 day bitter cold spells that killed them off and like last year they are putting up new green leaves at the ground level and so I'll do as I did last year and keep sprinkling on the Epsom Salts which seems to bring back everything.

Saw something at the new doctor's office that I want to find to fill in between the gardenias - the leaves are sort of a maroon to purplish color and the bushes get small pink flowers - they do seem hardy and showed no sign of being affected but this past winter's cold fronts where as where ever you go the affect of the freeze on foundations plants is showing - keeping the yard guys busy this year.

So many have oh I forgot the name now but it is a palm - begins with an S - large fronds that almost look like the photos showing ancient Egyptians fanning their masters - anyhow I just do not like them at all and last year after the freeze I had the yard guys take out the one that was in front of this house - if they freeze most of the stems die off and turn an ugly tan but the bush/tree is not what I call pretty - was going to have them plant a flowering cherry but never got to it - been putting all my time into unpacking and still some unpacking -

Here it is a year and a half later - never imagined it would take this long however part of it was what the movers did - many boxes I packed with certain things that in my mind went together were emptied and other things put in the boxes and then trying to find where the contents of the box as I had packed it is an ordeal - plus several things arrived broken and some missing and my gold watch appears to have been taken out of its box and not found plus not finding the family photos has me trying to hold it together - people not as friendly here as I was used to and cannot figure out if that was because I lived so long in that house in Austin or is there really a difference and so with all this going on the yard took short shrift. Being alone with all this and not trying to moan and groan to my son and daughter-in-law ends up slowing me down to the point I feel cranky and not doing as much... but need to get my act together because I really can't let another year go by and not get some trees in the ground.

The guys taking care of my lawn and other yard maintenance are great and inexpensive so I have no doubt they will do a superb job - Part of my hesitation is also that there are no garden centers here except at places like Home Depot and Lowe's which means the plants are from California - on my way to see this new doctor in Tomball we passed a couple of what appears to be places where nursery stock is being grown - need to find out how to tap into those trees and plants. there must be a local garden center and I just have not figured out how to find it using Google.

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: BarbStAubrey on May 22, 2024, 12:23:32 PM

Well I did it - tired of the winter kill taking out the Gardenias and so I had them pulled - Emigdio was here yesterday with his crew of 3 and did a lot of planting for me - along the front where the Gardenias were I had him put in a row of Carolina Midnight with the Burgundy leaves - Planted 2 Vitex - they grow very quickly to about 8 to 10 feet tall and so I have one in front under the tree canopy and one in back about 20 feet from my bedroom windows - a bunch of Crepe Myrtle scatted in the back along with some Lantana that I love - can you believe I found white Lantana - I'm so excited -

And then something new to me - Have you ever heard of Japanese Blueberry? They were available of all places in the small garden center outside the grocery story HEB - evidently they come as shrubs or trees or tall buses which is what I have - I'm thinking these are pruned to from trees but I'm not yet familiar enough to know - I have 3 of them along the side fence - they are not quick growers but from all I've read their roots should not interfere with the septic lines - I really need a barrier along that fence line - on the other side is the back yards that are clear of almost any growth that are about 2 acres and then a road that is getting busier and busier - between needing a sound buffer but more something to stop the fumes from traffic plus I don't use that side of the yard I am going to plant it thick with the kind of trees and tall shrubs that grow 35 and 40 feet tall and so these are a start - I'm limited in my choice of quick growing trees because the septic is on that side - not nearly as tall but I hear Serviceberry works near a septic and so I'll have a couple of them for a change of texture with deciduous leaves and berries. Although, these Japanese Blueberries get berries that the birds like. Please if any of y'all know anything about the Japanese Blueberry fill me in...please!

Title: Re: Gardening by the Book
Post by: ginny on June 08, 2024, 03:49:06 PM

I don't know a thing about Japanese Blueberries but I bet your local Extension service does and it's a free phone call or email or website visit for the one in your area. I always use mine, to see if a tree or bush will grow where we are. Not so much grow as flourish, there being a huge difference. hahaha

It's really amazing how the local garden centers get in this stuff blooming which has no particular desire to grow in one's area.

Good luck!

ALL of my experiments in rooting new plants failed! I finally took the gardenia which was over a foot tall but had died, out of its pot, to see why. The top and bottom of the soil were wet but there was this ominous island in the middle of the dirt, totally rock hard and of dry earth. I have NO idea what happened there but I planted it outside for luck anyway, along with the azalea...the ONE which had lived out of a tray full. No roses. Irony of ironies, not a week ago I had put in water a spectacular bloom of John Paul II, a gorgeous white rose, and this morning in throwing it away I was shocked to see a ROOT coming from the stem? A ROOT! In nothing but water!!!!! So back in the water it went.

I have NO idea what happened! Except that rooting plants is apparently not my forte? hahaha Except for ivy hahaha I seem to be quite good at that...:)

The hawks are wiping out an entire clutch of doves at my bird feeders. Every day it seems they swoop down and it's been a long time since we've seen doves, makes me wish the hawks would go somewhere else.

Very happy with my flower borders at the moment. Wish I could stop dragging hoses, hate that the most.

How is YOUR garden growing?

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General Book Discussions & More => Gardening by the Book => Topic started by: BooksAdmin on March 15, 2021, 02:38:12 PM